R.M. Hoffman Community Outreach Programs

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Layette Donations For Needy Mothers

From 1999 to 2000, we chose to collect layette (newborn baby) clothing and accessories for needy mothers. We collected hundreds of items that were donated by our employees and matched by the company.

There are so many needs in our community that sometimes it is hard to choose which agency can best use our help. At the time, one of our neighboring companies, Isolation Products, participated in a program for many years helping with collection and assembly of layettes for needy mothers. The program is sponsored by the Diocesan Office of Pastoral Ministry in San Jose. A layette generally contains infant clothing (undershirts, pajamas, diapers and perhaps a toy). They collect clothing all year long.

R.M. Hoffman Layette Donation to Needy Mothers

History of the Layette Donation Program

In 1955, Helen Hansen became the Executive Secretary for Catholic Social Services in Santa Clara County. For the next 38 years she brought the compassion to families in need. Among her most cherished projects was the annual Layette Shower, which enabled a new and needy mother to have a fitting wardrobe for her newborn child.

Initially sponsored by the Catholic Social Services, (now called Catholic Charities), this very special project has channeled the generosity and creativity of Catholic women throughout the years. Each year the women bring together the items they have purchased, sewed, crocheted, or knitted into a huge exhibit, normally held at a parish hall.

When the exhibit ends, the articles are taken to a central place to be organized into individual layettes to be distributed as needed. The Public Health Nurses of Santa Clara County disburses these layettes as the women to whom they are ministering give birth.

As the Layette activity took on greater magnitude, it was turned over to Catholic Women’s organizations to prepare and coordinate. For many years, the Marillac League, an auxiliary of Catholic Charities, was its sponsor. Eventually, the Diocesan Council of Catholic Women, with its broad-based membership, undertook its direction. In the last few years, it has been under the sponsorship of Office of Pastoral Ministry which is a part of the Diocese of San Jose. Now, it reaches out to organizations and to each parish.

The exhibit is traditionally the first Monday of December. Those who participate always experience a blessing because they may have experienced poverty like one woman who brought her first child home from the hospital in a paper bag and vowed that would not happen to anyone else if she could prevent it. Perhaps, it is because the newborn child is the greatest gift of all and deserves the finest.

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R.M. Hoffman Layette Donation to Needy Mothers