Did you know that The Children’s Home & Lemieux Family Center has a boutique where families can get anything they need, for free? It’s fully supported by in-kind donations from the community and maintained by volunteers. We recently asked Michelle King, our lovely lead boutique volunteer, a few questions about the boutique and why she does what she does at The Children’s Home.
What do you like most about organizing the boutique?
I love that we’re providing a service for the families that is easy to understand and easy to access. I am (by nature) a highly organized individual and also enjoy efficiency, so I organize items in a way that makes finding what families need as simple as possible. They have so much on their minds already, and I want the boutique to be fun for them.
What do you find to be interesting about the boutique?
Because our boutique is for the families in the Pediatric Specialty Hospital, Child’s Way, and Adoption, we’ve got a wide array of things for families from feeding and nursing supplies to toys, toiletries, clothes, and crafts, and it’s all free!
What has changed as you’ve volunteered in the boutique?
What amazes me is how much technology is integrated into the infant toys now. There are so many cause and effect toys, like things that light up and play music if you push a button. I think it’s wonderful that someone out there is paying attention to stimulating our infants in a way that wasn’t possible 15 years ago.
What are some things that we always need?
We always need clothes to keep preemie and newborn babies warm, like footed onesies, infant mittens and socks, and swaddles. We’ve also really started to need more older kid clothes for the first time, mostly sizes 10-14 kids.
If you’d like to donate items to the boutique, you can purchase items to be shipped to us directly from our Amazon wish list or you can visit our website to see more of our needs. Thank you for making the boutique possible!