Baby Bundles deliver love, caring to moms
BY KATHY BARATTA Staff Writer

MANALAPAN - Senior citizens, Girl Scouts and representatives of the Target department store in Manalapan have once again collaborated on a project to help young mothers. The new moms get handmade goodies like cuddly afghans for swaddling infants and sweaters for tiny tots.

Manalapan Senior Center Director Elaine McNamara recently got the ladies of the senior center together with Girl Scout leader Izzy D'Agostino's young women to thank everyone who participated for working together to make the annual event as special this year as it has been in the past.

According to McNamara, D'Agostino gets her employer, Target, as well as the United Way and local Girl Scout troops to work together and provide new mothers with items they may not otherwise have been able to provide their newborns.

Items like baby clothes and accessories, sweaters, hats, blankets and the like, are lovingly handmade by the ladies of the senior center with yarn that was purchased through the Girl Scouts' fundraising efforts. Under the direction of Human Resources Manager Rita Mc- Grath, Target donates items such as car seats, high chairs and baby strollers.

McGrath said she has been behind Baby Bundles since D'Agostino came to her and outlined the project's needs and goals. She said she was thrilled to be able to be involved and to make a difference in a worthwhile project.

All of the items were on display at the Manalapan Senior Center, Route 522, on May 16. McNamara said they would be given to organizations such as Epiphany House and 180, Turning Lives Around, which in turn will place them in the hands of new moms.

The following Girl Scout troops from Manalapan-Englishtown helped to make the project a success: 381, 1791, 992, 371, 1153, 443, 335, 1171, 369, 399, 391, 1531, 394, 1164, 1153, 1529 and 1800.

"Our Manalapan-Englishtown Girl Scout troops work hard all year to contribute to this display," McNamara said at the senior center on May 16. "Each year in the fall the girls start to meet; word spreads throughout the troops about the Baby Bundles program. Troops start collecting and donating knitting yarn to the senior center for our talented senior volunteers to get busy knitting and crocheting beautiful baby blankets, sweaters, hats and mittens. The girls from these troops actually do chores to earn money to buy the yarn so we really appreciate the fact they think this program is that worthwhile,"

To the seniors who created the special items, McNamara said, "Your talents cannot be matched. We love your work. Everything is so unique and we truly think you are all fantastic volunteers."

McNamara thanked Target and Mc- Grath for the store's continuing dedication to Baby Bundles.

"Target plays a wonderful role in also donating the big ticket items over the years. Items such as car seats, strollers and baskets for the Girl Scouts to fill, and other much needed items such as many, many diapers. We are truly grateful for their corporate sponsorship of this program."

Finally, McNamara spoke about the commitment D'Agostino makes to the endeavor each year.

"Izzy is our favorite community volunteer. Izzy is someone who just never says no; who always thinks of the possibilities and takes true pleasure in helping make this venture as successful as it is. Izzy does everything with a genuine smile and we love her for helping to pull this all together. She is an inspiration to all who are involved with this program," the senior center director said.

McNamara made everyone laugh when she also thanked D'Agostino's family, saying, "Her family has gotten very used to the fact that this is a priority for her and who cares if her living room becomes the official drop-off/pick-up point of the things she needs to transport."

Mayor Michelle Roth, Township Committeeman Richard Klauber and Township Administrator Tara Lovrich were on hand at the senior center to represent Manalapan. Roth read a mayoral proclamation honoring the efforts of everyone who was involved in the Baby Bundles project in 2008.