BABE Boutique Helps Parents With Needed Baby Items
BABE Boutique Helps Parents With Needed Baby Items
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Jackie Gorski-jgorski@timesuniononline.com
BABE Boutique Helps Parents With Needed Baby ItemsArea parents are able to snatch up needed items for their children at Beds and Britches Etc., or BABE, a boutique designed to help expecting parents and parents of young children.
The BABE Boutique is a program of Heartline Pregnancy Center, said Janelle Ray, BABE coordinator.
“The BABE store was its own entity at one time, then Beaman Home took it over. Around 2009, it became a part of Heartline,” said Dave Koontz, executive director of Heartline Pregnancy Center.
Ray said the boutique hopes to alleviate some of the stress parents feel when they have children.
“Children are a wonderful gift. They can be costly in the things they may need, so we want to help take a burden off (parents) by providing an opportunity by using those well-earned coupons in our store for items,” Ray said.
She noted the boutique also wants to be a tool for parents, to encourage parents to go routine appointments for their children and “get plugged in” to different programs in the area.
One of the programs the boutique offers since it is part of Heartline is a program called Earn While You Learn, which is parenting classes where parents meet with a child advocate during the course of the pregnancy and even afterward.
Families can earn what is called BABE coupons at over 50 BABE coupon distributors in the area, Ray said. The distributors are different local doctors in the area and organizations.
According to the boutique’s brochure, coupon distributors include Beaman Home; Combined Community Services’ Hand Up, Project Independence Program; Cardinal Services’ Early Head Start; Warsaw Community Public Library; Warsaw Women’s Center; Parkview Whitley Pediatrics; Purdue Extension: Nutrition Program; Syracuse Public Library and Joe’s Kids.
Expecting parents and parents of children aged birth to 5 can earn coupons by going to their appointments with those distributors and they get to use the coupons in the boutique, as BABE doesn’t take cash, Ray said. She said parents do have to ask for the coupons, though, as they don’t always automatically get them.
Items parents can choose from include baby necessities, such as diaper cream, soap, lotion, diapers, wipes, clothing, formula and bottles, Ray said.
The boutique has been provided grant money to purchase new items, such as car seats, and BABE works with Lutheran Hospital. The boutique can order cribs, pack and plays and any other larger baby necessities.
Ray explained the pricing system at the boutique.
Things that would generally be one coupon would be a “bundle” of 12 diapers, a package of wipes, of bottle of soap, clothing. Formula is a little more expensive, she said, so it could be more in the five- to eight-coupon range. Bigger items are more coupons. One example Ray gave was a car seat might be 35 coupons.
The bigger items are cribs and car seats and are ordered new from Amazon or Walmart once a month, generally the first Monday of every month, Ray said. The parent fills out an order form, and the boutique will let the client know when the boutique received the item and can be picked up.
Sales for the boutique are not an uncommon thing as BABE tries to have a sale at least once a month, Ray said. One example of a sale the boutique runs twice a year is its Fill A Bag sale, where parents can fill a bag with items and get that bag for one coupon.
The boutique does run on grants and donations.
“So we run on the support from United Way, K21 Health Foundation and Kosciusko Community Foundation,” Ray said.
While there are new items in the boutique, Ray said BABE does accept donations. She noted the boutique doesn’t take items they can order like cribs for safety purposes. The boutique also doesn’t take donations of open diapers, formula, etc.
If people are interested in donating clothes, people can contact the boutique. If people want to donate money, it would go through Heartline, Ray said.
“Obviously, clothing, we want it in good condition. We don’t want holes and stains. We want to make sure the things we provide are of good quality,” Ray said.
The boutique is open from noon to 5 p.m. Monday and Wednesday due to the COVID pandemic. Once the pandemic is over, Ray said they will look to go back to normal hours of noon to 5 p.m. Monday through Wednesday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday.
Due to the pandemic, it is asked that if a parent brings a child, the child should be in a stroller or carrier in order to limit the spread of germs. The store also does routine cleaning.
There is no appointment necessary to go into the boutique, Ray said.
