Judy Putnam: ‘Kind of a small-town thing’

WILLIAMSTON – There’s no board of directors. No website or email. No grant writing. No tax write-offs and nonprofit status.

There’s just Sandy.

Sandy Bowden Whelton has been keeping kids from needy families in fresh diapers and baby wipes since 2011. Now she says she needs donations.

The two-time Williamston City Council member, former deputy city clerk and all-around volunteer for the town was inspired a few years ago while shopping for her granddaughter Pyper’s diapers at Walmart.

A mother with a baby and small child was shopping in the diaper aisle.

“I heard her say, ‘We’ll have to put some of this back because I don’t have enough money for diapers,’” she said. “That just broke my heart.”

She came up with the idea of supplying diapers through the Williamston Food Bank. She called it “Pyper’s Diapers.”

Her idea was featured in a 2011 Lansing State Journal story. People sent checks and dropped off boxes on her porch, a few blocks from the downtown district.

Now, Whelton say she needs help. A fall powder puff game by the Williamston High School Student Council has raised about $1,000 annually, but the event is a few months away.

“I just want to remind people that I still supply diapers to the Food Bank...if it’s in their hearts to help,” she said.

Sandy, along with her son and daughter-in-law, Will and Bonnie Whelton, supply the diapers and wipes that families request through the food bank, which is open the last Friday and Saturday of the month or as needed.

“I always want to see kids taken care of whether it’s food, shelter, clothing or other needs,’’ said Bonnie Whelton, a preschool teacher at St. Mary.

Sandy Whelton said that families in need are working but can’t keep up with the costs of basics. She also said that cloth diapers are not an option for many because they do not have washing machines or transportation to the laundromat.

Jill Cutshaw, the co-director of the Williamston Food Bank and the postmaster for the town, said the need fluctuates. Right now the Food Bank is helping with about seven babies in diapers.

The informal charity structure suits the town, Cutshaw said.

“It’s kind of a small-town thing. It’s something we all know about in Williamston,” Cutshaw said.

Whelton is looking for new donations to keep up with the $100 to $200 a month cost. Lately, “I’m funding it mostly myself,” she said.

Diapers are expensive. According to the website, TheBump.com, newborns use 75 diapers a week at about 25 cents per diapers. Throw in wipes and lotions and it really adds up — about $1,000 a year.

A researcher for the Yale School of Medicine in 2013, found that 30 percent of mothers of young children in a study reported that they did not have enough diapers to change them as often as they needed, leading them to feel depressed and anxious.

Another diaper bank in the area, the Mid-Michigan Diaper Bank, supplies 13 agencies with diapers. About 475 babies and 25 adults are served each month in a five-county region, said Theresa Walz, who founded the Lansing group in 2012.

The demand for diapers is so strong that shelters and food banks find it “very difficult to keep diapers on their shelves for families in need,” Walz said.

Want to help? Checks can be made out to: Sandy Bowden Whelton, 428 Mill St. Williamston, MI, 48895.

Donate to the Mid-Michigan Diaper Bank: http://www.midmichigandiaperbank.org

Contact Judy Putnam at 267-1304 or jputnam@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @JudyPutnam.

Checks can be made out to: Sandy Whelton, 428 Mill St. Williamston, MI, 48895.

Donate to the Mid-Michigan Diaper Bank: http://www.midmichigandiaperbank.org