A KINDNESS REPAID
Chrysta Lewis — with son Gabriel, 12, and twins Sloane and Jorgia, 3 — used to be a client at Made by Momma, a recipient of the Christmas Fund, and now volunteers there.
It’s always a good day when the sky is a clear blue and the sunshine offers a much-needed respite from the pre-winter chill. On a recent weekend afternoon at the Made by Momma (madebymomma.org) headquarters, the warmth is up several degrees thanks to the busy preparations of volunteers, who in one large room pack donation bags of kids’ clothes, while in an adjacent commercial kitchen, whip up hundreds of meals for moms and their families.
Upstairs, though, the happiness meter is off the charts as identical twin sisters Sloane and Jorgia put on a show like only toddlers can. “I don’t know how you’re going to get a photo of us all together,” says their mom, Chrysta Lewis, as the three-year-olds run, giggle and dance before a small gathering that includes their big brother, 12-yearold Gabriel. “They don’t stay still for more than a few seconds.”
While her girls’ antics bring smiles and laughter, there was a time when Lewis couldn’t imagine this kind of ordinary happiness. “My partner left me a month before I was due,” she says of the father of her girls, who also left her in financial straits. With no immediate family in the city, “I was pretty much alone.”
Then, a friend told Lewis about Made by Momma, the local, volunteer-run organization that provides immediate relief to families in need by fulfilling life’s essential demands such as hunger and clothing, along with social support for isolated mothers. “They welcomed me into their village, they gave me hope,” says Lewis, who runs her own esthetician business. “They were there for me in my hour of greatest need,” she adds of Made by Momma, one of the charities supported by the 2019 Christmas Fund.
Extending a helping hand has been the core purpose of Made by Momma since its inception in 2009, created by a group of about 20 women who understood the challenges that all women face as new moms, especially those lacking financial and emotional support. “I have four kids of my own, so I know what it’s like,” says Allyson Palaschuk, one of the organization’s founders and its president, a full-time job that is 100 per cent volunteer. “I struggled with postpartum depression and it was a community of women who helped me get through that tough time,” she says. “It literally saved my life.”
In those early days, Made by Momma was a word-of-mouth operation, but the need Palaschuk and her compatriots saw was much bigger. They registered as a non-profit in 2010, as a registered charity in 2011, and in 2012 moved into their headquarters in the city’s inner-northwest. Along with providing nutritious meals to moms at home and those spending weeks in neonatal intensive-care (NICU) units, they provide gently worn clothing to families, care visits to moms and at-home and other programs to support clients and their young families. They have an easy, one-intake process, the only stipulation that at least one child under five be residing in the home.
Last year, Made by Momma delivered nearly 80,000 meals and more than 350,000 essential items including cribs, beds, diapers, infant formula, school supplies and bedding to moms and their families across the city. Their clients include women fleeing domestic situations, facing poverty or, in some cases, merely lacking a social support network. In 2018 alone, they helped more than 6,000 clients, with 140 local agencies referring their clients to the services Made by Momma offers.
This is made possible, says Palaschuk, by the organization’s more than 800 volunteers. “We just do what needs to be done,” she says. “But the need in our city is getting greater and we never want to have to turn away someone in need — we try to be the village we ourselves needed.”
People like Lewis are proof positive that, so far, they have been a resounding success. Not only is she thriving as an entrepreneur these days, she and her partner, Jim Reinbold, have joined the ranks of Made by Momma’s dedicated army of volunteers.
“They are literally saving lives,” she says as Jorgia and Sloane continue their happy hopping around the organization’s upstairs meeting area. “I’m so happy to be a part of it,” adds Lewis, “to let other moms know they are not in this alone.”