Harriet Dawson invited friends and neighbors to her home in the Village of Hadley for a pajama party to help kick off the 2017 Pajama and Book Drive.
Clad in pajamas of all kinds and bringing donations of pajamas and books, the women enjoyed good food, mimosas and learned more about the drive.
The Pajama and Book drive started in 2009 collects pajamas and books to donate to homeless children and the very needy. Program director Mikki Blumberg saw an ad for a similar program, and she contacted the organization and found out donations were shipped nationwide. Blumberg wanted to help her local community. The solution? Start her own program. She contacted John Rohan and the red boxes have been placed in recreation centers every year since then.
“There is no way I could have done this without the support from John Rohan and Pam Henry,” she said.
The pajamas and books collected are distributed to the neediest children in Lake, Sumter and Marion County.
Blumberg working with the Girl Scout Alumnae Silver Trefoils collected 100 pairs of pajamas in 2009. Last year they collected over 6,000 pairs of pajamas and almost 4,000 books.
“Villagers are so generous,” said Blumberg.
There are an estimated 6,000 homeless children in the tri-county area. Barbara Crewell, vice president of the Sumter County Children’s Alliance, attended Dawson’s pajama party to give an update on the need and share some of the thank-you notes received from the children. She talked about children living in motels and the condition of these motels and she talked about the needy pointing out that not all the recipient children are homeless, but live in homes where even with parents working sometimes two jobs each they are just barely making it. “I didn’t come to make you sad,” said Crewell at one point, “but to tell you what a great job you are doing.” Crewell mentioned a category that could use more support is the pajamas for the older children, the middle schoolers and high school kids.
The red boxes will be in 36 recreation centers until Dec. 10. If you would like more information about this program or if you would like to host a pajama party, contact Mikki Blumberg at 350-6030.
