“As a mom, I know when you’re worried about your children, you can’t get much else done,” said Kentucky First Lady Britainy Beshear at the Brighton Center in Newport on Tuesday.
Beshear served as the keynote speaker at an event honoring a donation of over 100,000 diapers and over 1,000 cans of baby formula from Amazon and Baby2Baby, a California-based nonprofit, to local families in the wake of this month’s historic flooding.
“Oftentimes, families that are hit the hardest are in under-resourced neighborhoods or in situations where they’re really struggling, as it is,” said Greater Cincinnati United Way CEO Moira Weir, who also spoke at the event. “So, this just really sets them further and further behind. I like to remind people, families haven’t really come back from COVID, and so something like a natural disaster takes them even further and further back.”
Brighton Center President and CEO Wonda Winkler and Northern Kentucky Community Action Commission Executive Director Catrena Bowman also spoke at the event.
“Families’ living expenses have significantly outpaced their incomes, and if you add a natural disaster or a financial shock into the mix, well, the situation can be truly catastrophic,” Winkler said.
Several Brighton Center families came out to get donations, and anyone from the region can walk-in and get donated supplies, as well as access to any of the Brighton Center’s many services, by visiting the Brighton Center Family Center on Central Avenue in Newport, Monday through Thursday from 12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
“For many families, the cost of diapers and formula is often over $200 a month,” said Bowman. “That is a heavy burden for families to carry. So, we know this donation goes beyond just that immediate need, but it offers economic relief and it gives parents dignity that are working hard to support their children.”
Breanna Holt and her kid were among some of the Brighton Center families at the event. She’s gone through the center’s rapid rehousing program and has a case worker with Brighton Center.
“I have seen a lot of people coming together, not even just Kentucky, but as humans, come together when disasters happen,” Holt said.
“They [The Brighton Center] have financial resources, they’ve helped me keep my lights on, they’ve helped me put diapers on my kids bum,” said Bridgette Barnes, who’s also received services from the Brighton Center. “They’ve helped me just keep it together and be able to keep my dream a possibility.”
Barnes is currently in the Brighton Center’s health technology administration job-training program.
Kentucky has experienced 14 federally declared disasters since Gov. Andy Beshear took office at the end of 2019. At the event, Britainy Beshear expressed what many were feeling: gratitude for the donation but also admiration for the state’s perseverance in the face of hardship.
“Kentuckians have been through so much, but we know that we can get through any challenge together because Kentuckians, like no other group of people I’ve ever met in my life, come together when times are hard,” Britainy Beshear said.
Barnes encouraged local people who needed help to come down to Brighton Center to get connected to services.
“Closed mouths don’t get fed,” Barnes said.
“The world can sometimes feel a little heavy right now,” Britainy Beshear said. “There’s a lot of negativity, but I think today shows us what’s possible when we come together. And I think that when we choose kindness, we get so much more accomplished.”
You learn more about the Brighton Center and Baby2Baby, including how to donate, at their websites, linked below.
