CNY Diaper Bank Celebrates Record Setting, Collecting Over 250,000 Diapers 

The CNY Diaper Bank in May collected 252,334 diapers during its fourth annual “Make a Mother’s Day” Diaper Drive, meeting this year’s goal and surpassing its collection of over 150,000 diapers during the 2018 drive. Since its inception, the CNY Diaper Bank has distributed over one million diapers.

“We are thrilled that 2019 was our biggest ‘Make a Mother’s Day’ Diaper Drive yet,” said Michela Hugo, founder of the CNY Diaper Bank. “We want to thank everybody who participated, as this will make a tremendous impact on local families in need.”

As part of the drive, the CNY Diaper Bank was selected by Movement Mortgage’s foundation as one of 12 national recipients for a 2019 “Movement 10K” grant. Each month, the Movement Foundation encourages employees to nominate nonprofits doing good work in their communities for a $10,000 grant, dubbed the “Movement 10K.” East Syracuse Movement Mortgage branch manager John O’Brien nominated the CNY Diaper Bank, and the diaper bank then submitted a video about the organization before being selected as a grant recipient.

A generous donation from NBT Bank also helped the CNY Diaper Bank reach its 2019 goal.

Several schools, churches and businesses throughout the area additionally supported the CNY Diaper Bank’s 2019 “Make a Mother’s Day” Diaper Drive. Moses-DeWitt Elementary School in DeWitt collected 200 diapers and raised enough funds to purchase over 1,500 more diapers. DeWitt Community Church made the diaper bank their “Mission of the Month” for May, and Fairmount Community Church contributed to the drive through their endowment fund. Wegmans provided the CNY Diaper Bank with gift cards to purchase diapers, and Cathy’s Cookie Kitchen in Syracuse hosted a collection bin and donated 50 cents to the diaper bank for each of their frosted buttercream sugar cookies that they sold throughout the month.

The 100% volunteer-run CNY Diaper Bank was founded in May 2016 by Michela Hugo with a mission to make diapers accessible to all CNY families and to bring awareness of diaper need to the community. One in three families experience diaper need, and diapers are not covered by WIC or food stamps. The diaper bank now provides over 70,000 diapers to local families each month, up from 6,000 in its first month in operation.

For more information on how to donate to the diaper bank or for more ways to get involved, please visit www.cnydiaperbank.org. The CNY Diaper Bank operates year-round, collecting diapers of all sizes for distribution to local families through a growing network of 24 partner agencies.