Hundreds of babies and toddlers from low-income families in the Green Bay, Wis., area will be happier and drier in the coming months, thanks to the 13,000 diapers collected by Brown County United Way, in partnership with the Greater Green Bay Labor Council Community Services Committee and 21 community partners.

Dan Wadle, the AFL-CIO Community Services liaison, says the donations will go to organizations affiliated with the Community Partnership for Children, a community-wide initiative focused on keeping children from birth to age five safe, healthy and learning. Says Wadle:

It’s a case where there’s a lot of need in the community as far as with low-income families. It’s difficult to afford diapers. Our concerns in organizing it was that diapers are an expensive item for people to buy, but people have stepped up and very generously contributed thousands of diapers.

Janet Piontek, who volunteers with Love Life Ministry, which provides basic infant needs to low-income families at the Peace United Methodist Church, told the Green Bay Press-Gazette:

The drive is very important for us because we need to buy all of our diapers. Diapers are very expensive, so any time we get donated diapers, we’re ecstatic.

This was the first union/community diaper drive, and Wadle says he expects it will become an annual event.   

Click here for video coverage from WBAY-TV.