A Caring Connection For Local Women’s Club

By Nancy K. Crevier

Linked to the Bloomfield-based Covenant to Care for Children (CCC) through its mother organization, Connecticut Junior Women’s Club, the Newtown Junior Women’s Club (NJWC) has quietly spent the last four years supporting that organization through various fundraisers and the Adopt-A-Social-Worker program.

According to its website, CCC has served nearly 20,000 Connecticut children in need every year, for the past 25 years. The organization’s mission is to mobilize and channel “the generosity of caring and faithful people to advocate for, mentor, and provide direct assistance to Connecticut’s children and youth who are neglected, abused, or at-risk.”

When Connecticut Junior Women’s Club selected CCC as its beneficiary for four years, beginning in 2008, all of the Junior Women’s Clubs in the state became a part of that affiliation, said NJWC president Christine Grabowski.

“Each club decides for itself what its involvement will be and what it can do,” she explained, due to the differences in membership of clubs in various towns. Newtown’s Junior Women’s Club is 20 strong, said Ms Grabowski. The NJWC decided in 2008 that they would take part in the Adopt-A-Social-Worker aspect of supporting CCC.

One of the ways in which NJWC supports its social worker, Robyn Wood, who is with the Department of Children and Families Office of Foster and Adoptive Services in Danbury, is to assemble personal care or “emergency” placement packs approximately three times a year. These packs, made up of personal care items and light blankets, are distributed by Ms Wood when children must be suddenly moved from one foster home to another, or removed from parental custody. Often there is not time for those children to collect any necessary personal products to take with them.

The NJWC uses money from its budget, members contribute items, and the group relies on donations from the public and businesses to provide or purchase items for these placement packs.

Recently, Ms Grabowski said, the club raised enough money to purchase six cribs for CCC, a request members had received from the child welfare organization. “And that was all just through word of mouth,” Ms Grabowski said.

The local group also provides monetary support to CCC from its fundraisers, such as the spring flower sale, cookbook sales, and the autumn mums sales.

“We also run the Tag-A-Gift program during the holidays, to provide gifts to Newtown children in need,” Ms Grabowski said, and some of those donations also go to support wishes from CCC.

This past month, the NJWC has teamed with Berkshire Motors, 25 Berkshire Road, Sandy Hook, to assemble and distribute Easter baskets, through Ms Wood, to local and area foster children.

In the works is the NJWC effort to put together placement packs once again in April, said Ms Grabowski, and the club would be grateful for any donations. The items most needed for assembly of these emergency packets are shampoo, cream rinse, hair styling products, soaps, lotions, powder, deodorants, acne treatments, toothbrushes and toothpastes, socks, combs and brushes, pacifiers, baby bottles, diaper cream, reusable water bottles for older children, lip balm, pens, small pads or writing tablets, flashlights, key chains, small cosmetic-type zippered bags, hair clips and elastics, and fleece blankets. In addition, gently used clothing for ages baby to age 18 are always welcome. These items can be dropped off at Berkshire Motors, said Ms Grabowski, and a club member will collect them.

“The more donations we get, the more packages we can put together,” said Ms Grabowski.

The Connecticut Junior Women’s Club affiliation with CCC is scheduled to come to a conclusion the end of 2012. At that time, said Ms Grabowski, the state organization may vote to renew its affiliation with Covenant to Care for Children.

“[NJWC] still has the option to continue to donate to Covenant to Care, of course,” added Ms Grabowski.

Meral Prewitt, program coordinator and team leader for the Adopt-A-Social-Worker program, Southern Region, State of Connecticut, is very hopeful that the Connecticut Junior Women’s Club will continue its affiliation with CCC after 2012.

 “The Connecticut Junior Women’s Club recently allowed us to make a presentation to them, and we are hoping that they will adopt us again,” said Ms Prewitt. She believes the CJWC views CCC as the hands-on organization that it is, making a genuine difference in the lives of Connecticut’s neediest children.

“The Adopt-A-Social-Worker program has been in place for over 20 years,” Ms Prewitt said, and it is connections with organizations like the state and local Junior Women’s Clubs that allow social workers to provide specific requests to benefit specific needs.

“A lot of families in Connecticut are living hand to mouth every month and have great needs. Clubs can come up with items that are desperately needed,” she said.

“The affiliation with CCC allows the women’s clubs in Connecticut to collect items that they know our families will truly appreciate,” Ms Prewitt said. “I think they like the fact that the items go directly from the social worker into the hands of the family or child in need. Nothing we get goes into a warehouse,” she said.

Covenant to Care for Children is extremely grateful for the support it has received from the state’s Junior Women’s Clubs, Ms Prewitt said. “These clubs don’t do things in small quantities and they are spectacular. They anticipate what the children need. The social workers are overjoyed to bring these things out to the kids, because the Junior Womens’ Clubs go over and above in every request. It’s a wonderful thing to experience,” she said, “for us, for the clubs, and for the children.”

In the meantime, said Ms Grabowski, the Newtown Junior Women’s Club is hopeful that more people will be made aware of the great service provided by Covenant to Care for Children, and support it.

“I have had people say to me, ‘There are needy children in Newtown, why support a statewide agency?’ Yes, there are needy children in every town in Connecticut. It’s important,” she said, “to educate people on the importance of helping and how they can help.”

To find out more about Covenant to Care for Children, visit the website at www.covenanttocare.org.

More information about the Newtown Junior Women’s Club can be found at www.newtownjuniorwomen.com.