Last weekend Revolution: DASH took a trip to the DC Diaper Bank to learn about their work and volunteer! Revolution: DASH is our youth service learning club, founded and run by the younger DASH residents. Every month we take time to learn about and volunteer in our community. In the past we have worked with the local neighborhood association and the Capital Area Food Bank, but this was our first field trip and we were excited. In the car on the way to the warehouse we played trivia and learned some interesting facts, like that in a single month an infant requires 100 diapers, and 1/3 of families struggle to buy sufficient diapers every month. We were able to reflect on why it’s so important that all families have access to diapers.
We then spent our afternoon packaging diapers, eating girl scout cookies and breaking down boxes. The kids had a blast and worked hard, at times even carrying three boxes of diapers at a time! At the end of the day we had packed over 1,400 diapers in two hours!
What made the trip so special is that DASH partners with the DC Diaper Bank to provide our residents with diapers each month. We were even able to organize the diapers we needed to transport to DASH while volunteering! We were glad for an opportunity to learn about issues that effect our community while giving back to such a wonderful organization.
At the end of the day we had some hard earned deep dish pizza and discussed our trip. When asked what their favorite part of the day was, the kids thought first of the pizza, obviously. But they also talked about how great it was to see the real impact of their work as the pile of diapers grew bigger and bigger, about how they enjoyed working outside and inquired as to when we could go back.
A big thanks to the DC Diaper Bank for hosting us! To learn about you can volunteer with the Diaper Bank check out their website: http://www.dcdiaperbank.org/get-involved/events/
