UCA’s Nontraditional Students Organization is seeking donations of diapers and wipes through February to support mothers in need and to supply the lactation suites on campus.
The Bear Bottoms Diaper Drive is an event put on each semester by the Nontraditional Students Organization.
This drive helps provide mothers in need of baby supplies as well as offer them assistance in the lactation suites while on campus.
“We are in need of diapers. Supplies are running low, and we want to be able to help mothers in their time of need,” Crystal Romine, advisor of the Nontraditional Students Organization, said. “If a mother is in need, they come by the office, and we give them a brown bag filled with two to three [packages] of wipes and a handful of diapers.”
Mothers are allowed 15 diapers a month which could help just enough to keep them from having to make financial sacrifices.
“I know first hand how much diapers cost. I, too, was a mother in college, Romine said. “Diapers are expensive, and sometimes I was faced with that hard decision of figuring out what to cover for the month, my personal needs, or my baby’s bottom.”
Romine played a part in the development of the lactation suites where supplies from the drive will also be distributed.
According to UCA’s website, the purpose of UCA Lactation Suites are to provide nursing mothers with multiple, convenient, private, sanitary and comfortable rooms to express, collect and/or store breast milk.
“The suites contain comfortable seating, a refrigerator, a microwave, adequate lighting, related reading materials, hand sanitizer and cleaning supplies,” the office manager of the Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion Elizabeth Gayfield said.
Currently, there are six lactation suites located throughout campus in the Brewer Hegeman Conference Center, Integrated Health Sciences Building, Lewis Science Center, Old Main, Torreyson Library and at Estes Stadium. A new location will open this year in Irby Hall.
The Diversity Advisory Committee Lactation Suite subcommittee oversees the administration and operation of these suites.
“There are times that students drop by to say how much they appreciate the lactation suites and that they would not have been able to return to campus without them, ” Gayfield said.
These suites have not only impacted UCA students but UCA’s community as a whole.
“We also hear from colleagues that guests to the campus compliment UCA for having these dedicated spaces,” Gayfield said.
A source that wished to remain anonymous said to Gayfield, “As an employee that does not have a private working space, I personally appreciate having the lactation suites. I have used the suites…for extended periods of time over the past four years; they have played a significant role in the wellbeing of my children and myself.”
However, mothers are not the only ones who can benefit from the Bear Bottoms Diaper Drive.
“Getting involved in events like this brings our UCA community together as a family. Now, more than ever, we need that … in giving just a little, I received so much more in return,” said donor Barbara Pauly.
Donations can be dropped off in the Nontraditional Students Organizations Office in Bernard Hall room 205.