By Jolene Farley
The Steen Women's Ministries is collecting donations of baby items for the Center of Hope Ministry in Sioux Falls, S.D.
The Center of Hope is making mother and baby baskets for mothers struggling in various ways, such as single parenting, financial difficulties, bad choices and relationship concerns.
The Center of Hope, opened in November 2000, is a Christian outreach ministry whose motto is "meeting needs and sowing seeds of the gospel."
The new mother/baby basket program, slated to begin in mid-January, asks nursing staff at the Sioux Falls hospitals to disperse coupons to new mothers (at their discretion) that can be redeemed at the Center of Hope for the baskets.
Baskets include a crib-size quilt, a receiving blanket, bibs, booties, a "onesie" T-shirt, baby soap or wash, washcloths, baby lotion, diapers, woman's lotion, and a book about Jesus and children.
"It has been going well," said Center of Hope director Fred Wilgenburg. "WeÕve been getting a lot of donations."
Wilgenburg and his wife, Amy, and daughters, Whitney, 9, Siera, 7, and Jenna, 4, are members of Steen Reformed Church.
Steen Reformed Church has been very supportive, according to Wilgenburg. The church ladies have made several adult quilts to be given away by the Center as Christmas gifts. They have also donated used jackets and knitted stocking caps and mittens.
The more than 40 women involved in the Steen Women's Ministries have made the basket program their Christmas project. The women each brought items to their Christmas meeting on Dec. 10, and a donation box has been placed near the entryway for parish or non-parish support of the project.
Two other churches, First Reformed Church of Boyden, Iowa, and First Reformed Church of Volga, S.D., have joined Steen Reformed Church in collecting donations.