Community Baby Shower Celebrates 10 Years

The 10^th anniversary of the Stork’s Nest Baby Shower, hosted by the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center Anita Thigpen Perry School of Nursing, will take place from 12:30 to 3 p.m. April 13 at the International Cultural Center, 601 Indiana Ave.

Prior to the event, donations of new baby items, auction items or money are collected for the Stork’s Nest, a program sponsored by the March of Dimes and designed to encourage pregnant women and teens to receive regular prenatal care.

“This year’s baby shower is so important because the new Lubbock Perinatal Coalition just received a $200,000 grant to almost double the number of pregnant women and teens who will be involved in the Stork’s Nest incentive program,” said event organizer Linda Brice, R.N., Ph.D., associate professor in the School of Nursing. “This year’s goal is to raise $146,000 worth of new baby items or monetary donations so that babies born in Lubbock are healthy, normal weight and carried to term.”

Last year Brice and her students, with the help of the Lubbock community, raised $101,300 in new baby items and monetary donations. The shower has raised more than $354,000 for pregnant women and teens in the community since it began a decade ago. Brice hopes to surpass $500,000 for the event’s 10^th anniversary.

“We hope to continue to collect as many new baby items as possible,” Brice said, “and with the grant money and some of the proceeds from the baby shower, we will be able to expand the Stork’s Nest staff.”

The Stork’s Nest is a national cooperative project of the March of Dimes and Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Inc. The project is also part of the Larry Combest Community Health & Wellness Center, a nonprofit nurse managed primary health care center operated by the School of Nursing.

The public is invited to attend the event, which will include refreshments, along with live and silent auctions and door prizes. Donations of baby items or monetary donations now are being accepted. For more information, contact Brice at (806) 241-3652.

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