Educated Mommy...We're Here!!

Back in August of 2011 Shelly Gaddis (Elegant Mommy owner) made a very exciting announcement of her plans to open a non-profit organization to run alongside Elegant Mommy. Her vision was to move to a new location that has enough space for the organization, Educated Mommy, to hold events and classes like Baby Wearing 101, Cloth Diaper 101, the monthly La Leche League meeting, etc. They were to be an independent place where parents can get evidence based and un-biased information on anything and everything pregnancy, breastfeeding, and natural-parenting related.

Well, we would like to announce today, that because of YOU, we are here! We have had several fundraising events throughout the start-up process, and we just want to give you all an idea of what we have been doing with the money that we have received from your generous donations and also give you an idea of where we are going!

Since launching our fundraising efforts, we have raised a total of $4,551! That is simply phenomenal support, and we are SO excited that our readers, customers, family, and friends believe in this effort the same way we do! This money has helped us get Educated Mommy up and running in the following ways:

• $1,550 was spent to get Educated Mommy's legal status as a 501c(3) initiated and finalized
• $1,651 was spent to get Educated Mommy's room ready to go. It was spent on things like carpet, trim, paint, etc
• $100 was spent on business cards

I'm also excited to announce that Educated Mommy just ordered *8* more breast pumps to rent out, for a total of 10 rent-able pumps!! How exciting is that?? Not only will we now have 10 pumps for rent, but we are renting them out for less than hospitals rent them for *and* less than MSRP! That is just one of the many ways that Educated Mommy is working to make sure families in our community have the information and resources that they need - at affordable rates!

In addition to that, there are several group events and classes that are being planned to begin very soon: We are putting together a "Going Back To Work After Baby..." support group that will focus on breastfeeding after returning to work, as well as a group called "Milk Monologues" that will be for mommies and newborns and will help mommies with everything from breastfeeding to dealing with diaper rash. There are also discussions in the works about putting together a "Frugal Moms" group. So, be looking for all of these things (and so much more!) coming your way in the near future! You can always check our webpage or our facebook page for upcoming events and more information.

Since we are a non-profit, we will forever (and ever!) be holding fundraising events to help fund these things above, as well as any new services or information that our Board of Directors feels we need to implement as we evolve into the most useful resource we can for the community.

Thank you SO much for your support in the past months, and we look forward to serving you!