Junior Auxiliary of Hattiesburg holds diaper drive

HATTIESBURG, Miss. (WDAM) - Babies and diapers just seems like an automatic, singular pair.

But for some, a pack of Pampers is a luxury, appreciated but often unaffordable.

Which is where groups like the Junior Auxiliary of Hattiesburg comes in.

The local female volunteer organization staged a diaper drive Saturday at Target, benefitting Edwards Street Fellowship Center and Petal Excel By Five.

“We have projects throughout the year, and this is one that’s really dear to my heart, the Pine Belt Diaper Drive,” said Sommer Dyess, who chairs the Pine Belt Diaper Bank. “We’re here to serve other women and children in our community.”

Dyess said the lack of diapers can have an impact on early childhood education.

“One in three families, they struggle to provide a diaper for their children, and most state and national safety net programs, they don’t cover that and that’s just something that we’re not aware of and many of us take that for granted,” Dyess sais. “But there are so many mothers here that can’t afford diapers,”

In fact, Junior Auxiliary, Edwards Street, and Petal Excel By Five were all hoping that the event brings more attention to the need right here in Hattiesburg.

“I’m just raising awareness that we have a diaper need here in the Pine Belt, and that a lack of diapers plays into so many parts of a child’s life,” Dyess said. “The way (children) stay clean, healthy.”

Saturday’s event collected 203 individual boxes of diapers to be distributed to mothers across the Pine Belt area.

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