Tickets on sale for Sept. 18 Gently Hugged fundraiser
Tickets are on sale for an annual event held to help babies during their first year of life.
The From the Heart fundraiser will be 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, Sept. 18 at Bernardo Winery, 13330 Paseo del Verano Norte, Rancho Bernardo. It will feature a dinner prepared by Café Merlot, no-host bar, music, live and silent auctions and raffle. The master of ceremonies will be Bob Hansen, aka Consumer Bob, from NBC7.
Tickets are $60 per person or $450 for a table of eight. Purchase until Friday, Sept. 4 at gentlyhugged.org.
The live auction will feature four items. There are dinners for eight at the Rancho Bernardo and San Marcos fire stations, a tour by Hansen of the NBC7 newsroom for eight (it includes an opportunity to watch a live newscast), and accommodations in Hawaii for a week (airfare not included).
Judy Blackford founded Gently Hugged with Nancy Sweeney. Blackford said the event is for up to 250 attendees and as of late last week a little over 100 tickets had been purchased. Proceeds will go toward the organization’s operational expenses.
Gently Hugged is a local non-profit that provides a bag full of clothes and other items to help low-income parents during their baby’s first year. The volunteer-run organization began as an idea formed in late 2011 due to a need that became more apparent during the height of the Great Recession that Sweeney and Blackford noticed. They are retired public health nurses and San Diego State University faculty members.
By March 2012, the all-volunteer group was ready to start accepting and distributing bags filled with new and gently-used baby clothes in newborn, 3-months, 6-months, 9-months and 12-months sizes, plus blankets, baby books and handmade knitted, crocheted or quilted items. They also included multilingual educational materials on preventative health issues for infants.
In less than a year, under the leadership of Blackford, a 4S Ranch resident, Sweeney, a Rancho Bernardan, plus Powegians Elizabeth O’Brien and Jan Rightmere, Gently Hugged had collected 3,200 pounds of baby clothing, enough to fill 235 boxes and bags.
To date, Gently Hugged has helped more than 1,300 babies in need throughout San Diego County, according to Blackford. The bags are delivered to health and service organizations and distributed by social workers or nurses to low-income, military and disadvantaged families.
“We want to expand service to more organizations,” Blackford said.
“Last year we raised $10,000,” Blackford added. “We were thrilled, because it paid our rent for a year. That was a big help.”
She said while they have typically received enough donated clothing items for young infants, the donations dwindle for older ones, so they have to purchase clothing — especially sleepers — in 9- and 12-month sizes. Blackford said the decline in larger sizes could be due to babies wearing out their clothing once they get older due to their increased movement plus staining their clothes when learning how to feed themselves. The organization only accepts used clothing in “immaculate” condition.
She also noted that lately the group has been short of girls clothes, so these must be purchased as well. “It goes in cycles, but maybe there have been more boys born than girls,” she said, adding the shortfall in girls clothing has occurred for the past six months.
Gently Hugged has 54 volunteers who perform a variety of tasks, she said. Some help with collection bins throughout the region, setting them up and periodically emptying them, or staffing the collection table at Bernardo Winery’s farmers market each Friday. Others inspect and launder donated clothing, making sure it is in good condition; some assemble the bags or take them to the distribution agencies. Volunteers who knit or crochet often make blankets or booties.
For more about Gently Hugged, go to gentlyhugged.org or call 858-649-3450. Donations are tax-deductible.