September is here and for our babywearers, caregivers, volunteers and supporters of New York Babywearing, this time of year is particularly special to us. This month marks the one year anniversary of New York Babywearing!
For those of you who do not know who we are and what our mission is, we are a motivated group of caregivers who are passionate about spreading the love and benefits of Babywearing. Upon hearing about the unfortunate ending to the nonprofit we were once apart of, we were faced with the difficult task of what to do. Thankfully we had the support of our dedicated volunteers as well as another Babywearing group who covers the central New York region, and were willing to join forces with us and to expand upon our current territory. One thing was for certain, in true New York fashion, we divided, conquered and picked ourselves right up and formulated our very own nonprofit. This was a task that involved hard work and a dedicated group of volunteers to support our group along the way. Without our volunteers we simply would not have been able to accomplish all of what we did this year.
For starters we needed a new E Board. The E board is made up of a President, VP of Administration, VP of Education, VP Finance and VP Librarian. We had a wonderful group who were able to step in and help to get us started and to fulfill their elected roles. We thank them tremendously for all of the time and effort they poured into their roles.
Let’s take this time to talk about some of the wonderful things that have happened along the way over the past year!
We were able to secure two new meeting locations this year to better serve our attendees! Mount Kisco is a weekend meeting and the space has been generously donated to us for our monthly meeting at All Together Now Kids. Brewster is our other new meeting location taking place at Seven Stars School of Performing Arts. They have been wonderfully accommodating to our group throughout the year.
This year we were able to expand upon our carrier selections within our lending libraries. Each location has on average 4-5 new carriers based on requests heard throughout the year. Additionally we have also recently done a carrier rotation which was a great opportunity for meeting locations to swap things out with one another. This is especially exciting for our regular attendees who may have been looking for something different, and for our educators to be able to work with different carriers.
We are also excited to have so many eager volunteers joining us this past year as well as new educators! This is especially important because without the volunteers to run our monthly meetings we would not be able to continue our in person events or meetings. For this reason, we are super excited to see some new faces and are always looking for volunteers.
We were able to launch two fundraising events this past year as well as a membership drive. The fundraising consisted of our fall and spring photo shoots. Photographers met at specific meeting locations and did mini photo shoots where a portion of the proceeds went to New York Babywearing. These fundraisers helped us tremendously and we are so excited to announce our fall photo fundraiser will be taking place again! This was especially helpful for us to gain the funds necessary to run our organization.
As of September 1st we also have a New dedicated group of volunteers who are serving on our current E Board:
For President we have Jena who writes,
“I’m excited to continue my role as president. My hopes are to continue expansion, though recruitment of new volunteers, and new meet up locations to best serve all of you, the community. More online support for caregivers who may not be able to make a meet up, though the addition of more educational resources in the chat group and the website. We also plan to create more outreach opportunities to reach communities that aren’t being serviced by NYBW currently. Whether the need is for babywearing support, carrier donations, or just likeminded caregivers to lean on, we hope to fill that gap this coming year.”
For VP Administration we have Lauren who writes:
“I'm very happy to be taking on this new role as VP of admin. For this coming year I hope to help the group grow and expand in positive ways. We hope by expanding our on line presence, and in person meet ups we can bring together like minded caregivers to just chat, as well as build their knowledge of babywearing. We love seeing new members and returning members at all of our gatherings. This group has provided me with so many new friends and shown me the benefits of baby wearing and I'm hoping that I can show this to others as well.”
For VP Education we have Anne:
“I’m so excited to be this years VP of Education! To kick the year off I’ve formulated a google classroom with a ton of information in it to set our volunteers up for success, and to provide them with all of the information needed to support our meeting attendees both in person and through our online community. Through getting our volunteers trained and our educator program completed, the hope is for us to be able to expand our reach both in our online community, and for in person outreach events and hopefully be able to create new meeting locations.”
VP Finance is Morgan who writes:
I’m really excited to be taking on a new role as the VP Treasurer for New York Babywearing. I can truly say babywearing has been my saving grace in motherhood, and this group has played a huge role in my baby wearing journey. In this upcoming year I am hoping to find new ways to allow our group to build stronger relationships amongst caregivers who share an interest in babywearing, both members and non. I am inspired to find new ways to expand our network and fundraise more efficiently while supporting family owned businesses, our local library system and the communities that host our meetups. Most of all, I’m hoping to help create a warm welcoming environment for all caregivers to come relax and enjoy some peer to peer conversation and a comfortable learning experience
And last but certainly not least we have our VP Librarian, Catherine:
“I'm looking forward to continue my role as librarian this year! Babywearing has been such a source of joy in my life and I love sharing it with all of you! There are so many amazing babywearing options these days. We've been working to update each library so our members have access to a variety of options for their preferred carrier style, in addition to seasonal babywearing items.”
We want to close by thanking our meeting attendees and members for their continued support. We have an amazing 55 new memberships this year and many new and familiar faces who have come to our meetings to show support. Our online community is also especially important and it warms our hearts to see everyone sharing and posting about their love of Babywearing. Each and every person is the reason we all continue to support this amazing group. It’s not just a monthly meeting or an event, it’s a community filled with love and support which is everything we had hoped for during this past year. We look forward to seeing what exciting new things this year will bring.
Peace, Love and happy Babywearing to all!
Anne Wetzel