Volunteers

Basically Babies could not operate without the committed support of our volunteers.  Our small group of volunteers works diligently to provide beautiful baskets, overflowing with baby essentials for the most impoverished families in our community. 

At Basically Babies, we believe that we have some of the most dedicated and committed volunteers in Edmonton.  The vast majority of our volunteers are well-educated, committed women who are themselves mothers with many years of experience in outfitting their own families, organizing their households, and sizing clothing appropriately for their growing children.  However, we should also mention that we also have a number of committed men who volunteer and an increasing number of children and teens who work with the charity completing tasks such as sorting, organizing, and working in our annual garage sale.

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Volunteer Positions

Our volunteers do everything!

The volunteers at Basically Babies participate in many different activities in the production of the layettes.  They work together in the office and independently throughout the community collecting, sorting, and washing the baby items, and subsequently creating the layettes themselves.  Volunteers are also involved in a number of events to raise funds and support for the organization.   Some volunteers are involved a few hours a year, others as many hours a week as they can spare. 

Some of the volunteer opportunities we currently have are:

Warehousing - Our warehouse volunteers sort new donations by gender, size and item type.  The items are matched into outfits and hung before being added into our upstairs inventory to be pulled into a layette.  With the volume of donations that have been coming into our warehouse, maintaining the warehouse has become more and more important to keep organized and efficient.

Selecting Layette Items  -  Volunteers will start with a list of the items to pull and will gather all of the items into a laundry basket.  They carefully select items from the warehouse by gender and size and create a color coordinated wardrobe for the baby.  The basket is then placed into a large bag and given to a member of a wash team.

Washing/Ironing  -  Volunteers on our wash teams take the layettes home to wash and iron the clothes and clean and sanitize the toys and other items.  Anything that is found to be stained or damaged is removed and replaced before the layette is completed.  Every clothing item that can possibly be ironed is ironed (socks, hats and snowsuits included) so that each item looks as beautiful as possible.  The items are laid as neatly as possible into the basket and the layette is then returned to our office for assembly.

Assembling  -  Our assembly volunteers carefully package the layette into the laundry basket in 7 beautiful layers.  The entire layette is then packaged up in clear plastic and tied with ribbons, a gift bow and a small card wishing the family our best as they raisetheir new child. 

Mending/Sewing/Removing Stains  -  We have some volunteers who sew receiving blankets, warm blankets or bibs for the layettes.  Others will mend items that just need a button or small repair.  We also have volunteers who are excellent at stain removal and will take a bag or two of stained items and return them to us once the stains are removed and they are in much better condition.

Driving  -  Some of our volunteers spend most of their volunteer time either picking up donations from various consignment stores, school drives, or individuals who cannot make it into the office to drop off their donations.  They also drop off and pick up layettes that are being washed and ironed or mended.