OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — For the 19th year in a row, Channel 94.1’s diaper drive brought hundreds of thousands of diapers to Open Door Mission.
On Wednesday, it was what they called their diaper unloading party, where the diapers are taken from the semi-trucks into the facility.
“It’s organized chaos going on today,” said Kristen Dineen, public relations coordinator.
That is the best way to describe what was happening on a brisk morning at Open Door Mission.
Boxes of diapers went from semi-trucks, sorted by size, thrown into larger boxes, before being taken into the facility. All of this in frigid temperatures.
“The really cold weather waited until our diaper unloading party but that’s part of the tradition that it seems like it’s always the coldest day of the year, at least we don’t have snow this year,” said Dineen.
While the roughly 200-plus volunteers caught a small break with no snow, they did process a total of 736,000 diapers, which is more than the population of Omaha.
Those volunteers ranged from the Treynor High School wrestling team to the Omaha Burke High School football team, to families bonding over helping others.
“It’s really great to see little kids helping their parents, and just making memories but also giving back to their communities,” said Dineen.
This comes during a pandemic, when the need for things like housing, food and diapers remains high in the United States and in the metro.
“We’ve been seeing an increase in people that need our services and our outreach centers and we’re able to get more diapers in the hands of people that need them so we don’t need to make those tough choices whether to buy food, diapers, or pay their rent and other bills,” said Dineen.
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