Bailey: The citizens of Newberg come together for a cause

By JOI BAILEY
Of A Family Place

While the community of Newberg has been in the spotlight due to many months of school turmoil and strife, there is a bright spot: A small, but mighty, group of unlikely heroes is trying to stitch the fractured community back together, while making the world safer, happier and drier for children and families hit hardest by the pandemic’s overwhelming stressors.

Brian Love of Krohn’s Appliance , aka “The Diaper King,” and his granddaughter, aka “The Diaper Princess,” just joined other locals for the seventh consecutive year in filling a massive appliance delivery truck with diapers for A Family Place. This year, however, it was different. 

"Anyone who’s had kids knows how essential diapers are, but diapers are doing triple duty this year," Love said. "This diaper drive provided an opportunity for all of us in Newberg to come together in service of something much more important than our differences, something we can all believe in — keeping kids safe."

These diapers will not only keep our community’s most vulnerable little ones drier and healthier, they’ll help reduce the major stress their families are facing when forced to choose among rent, food and a dry diaper.

Further still, and maybe most importantly, delivery of clean diapers is often the only way that A Family Place can, literally, get its foot in the door and begin to build lasting relationships with Yamhill County’s most stressed families. "And anyone who knows about AFP’s work understands that those relationships pave the way for our kiddos’ and our community’s future success,” Love noted.

Community members from across the town and its recall-torn political divide, came together to “stuff the truck.” And they exceeded the Krohns’ goal of 36,000 diapers.

From local farmers, to public school staff, to district house representatives, just about everyone showed up to support this critical program. Even the mayor pitched in with an armload of diapers.

“We really couldn’t do this important work without the support of thoughtful community members like Brian Love and his family and staff," said Joi Bailey, community engagement manager with A Family Place. "Thanks to this type of grassroots local support combined, with statewide and public and private advocacy, A Family Place and its fellow relief nurseries across the state are growing and doing what we’ve done exceptionally well for the past 40 years — keeping kids safe and building a brighter future across Yamhill County and the state of Oregon for generations to come.”

The Krohn’s Appliance Team wouldn’t have it any other way. Mr. Love and his granddaughter, who requested her birthday gifts come in the form of diapers for babies who would otherwise go without, have not only managed to bridge the community’s divide in service of its most vulnerable children. They've also offered us all a precious reminder: No matter how strongly we disagree, we can always find ways to work together and make the world a better place.