Northern Illinois University graduate student Kendall Hampton is on a mission to help overcome diaper insecurity for young families in need.  The DeKalb native became aware that no government subsidies are available to young families to offset the cost of diapers.  Similarly, many community resource programs, including food pantries, do not include diapers as a stocked item.  With costs for diapers soaring by as much as 60% since 2019, Hampton was moved to create the non-profit Empower Parenthood Project.  The Empower Parenthood Project holds diaper collection events and then distributes them through community events, usually in partnership with other non-profits.  The non-profit officially launched with its 501C3 tax status last year.

 

Sycamore Rotarians heard Hampton’s story this week and were encouraged to bring a diaper donation.  Hampton estimated that the volume of diapers collected would theoretically help cover up to a month’s worth of usage.  Her current diaper drive is in partnership with Northwestern Medicine which has various drop-off locations.  Other drives and fundraisers have even included baking 500 cookies.  Hampton also wants to raise awareness on how cash-strapped families don’t have access to any subsidy for this essential child item.  She said there are some allowance-type bills pending in Springfield, but they have not yet moved to the passage stage.

 

Further information on events and fundraising is available at the Empower Parenthood Project website: www.empowerparenthood.org .  Kendall Hampton may be contacted through email at:  empowerparenthoodproject@gmail.com. 

May 19, 1930 – Playwright Lorraine Hansberry, whose work “A Raisin in the Sun” was the first drama by an African American woman to be produced on Broadway (in 1959), is born in Chicago.

 

May 20, 1908 – Academy Award winning actor James Stewart (The Philadelphia Story), is born in Indiana, Pennsylvania.  Stewart is also known for his portrayals in It’s a Wonderful Life, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and Harvey.  He was also a decorated World War II Air Force officer and remained in the Air Force reserves after the war, retiring as a Brigadier General.

 

May 22, 1859 – Sherlock Holmes creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is born in Edinburgh, Scotland.

 

May 25, 1803 – American author and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson is born in Boston, Massachusetts.

May 19, 1980 – The Mt. St. Helens volcano erupts in Washington State, its first major eruption since 1857, sending steam and ash eleven miles into the sky.  It is the deadliest and most economic destructive volcanic event in U.S. history.  A total of 57 people are killed and 200 homes,47 bridges, 15 miles of railway, and 185 miles of highway are destroyed.  

 

May 20, 1927 – 25-year-old Charles Lindberg takes off in the “Spirit of Saint Louis” and becomes the first person to complete a solo non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean.  On this same date in 1932 Amelia Earhart would become the first woman to complete a solo non-stop flight across the Atlantic.

 

May 24, 1844 – Samuel FB Morse taps out “What hath God wrought” in the first message from an official telegraph office located in the basement of the U. S. Capital building which was then received at a Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Station in Baltimore.

 

May 25, 1787 – The Colonial Constitutional Convention began in Philadelphia with delegates from seven states forming a quorum.