PORT ORCHARD – Every Monday, moms needing diapers, clothing and other items for their young children can find them free of charge at the St. Gabriel/Prince of Peace baby boutique.

The boutique at the Port Orchard parish is part of the statewide ministry of Prepares, the parish-based initiative of the state’s bishops to support women and families with children from conception through age 5.

“I feel so blessed and fortunate, it just grows my faith every single time I’m there,” said Janice Houck, a St. Gabriel volunteer who manages the boutique. “I cannot tell you how much I get out of it,” she said. “It’s God’s work.”

A sign welcomes families to the Prepares baby boutique at St. Gabriel Parish in Port Orchard. Photo: Courtesy Cheryl Gudger

The boutique, open just for an hour on Mondays (except holidays), involves the efforts of 10 regular volunteers from the Port Orchard parish and its mission, Prince of Peace in Belfair.

On Mondays, the volunteers arrive ready to provide a welcoming environment and help with various tasks: sorting donations from parishioners, organizing clothing and other items, setting out “open” signs, welcoming and assisting moms who come to “shop,” playing with the moms’ children, and then cleaning up and putting everything away. After a debriefing session to discuss how the day went and any improvements that can be made, there’s always a closing prayer, said Cheryl Gudger, the Prepares coordinator at St. Gabriel.

“I love what I do, it’s a happy ministry for sure,” said Gudger, a retired teacher who has been coordinator since Prepares began at St. Gabriel in 2015.

Volunteers help moms fill out paperwork before they select clothing and other items for their children at the St. Gabriel/Prince of Peace Prepares baby boutique in Port Orchard. Photo: Cheryl Gudger

During 2021, the ministry served 101 families, providing 332 units of basic needs items and also serving as supportive companions to three families. In January, the group served 17 families and 25 children, Gudger said.

“We’re doing the work of God’s hands,” she said. “It’s a blessing. Our parish is just so generous.”

Flexible, parish-based outreach

In Western Washington, 82 of the Archdiocese of Seattle’s 177 parishes and missions are engaged in Prepares, either with active or in-progress groups, or by supporting Prepares with donations, according to Aleah Patulot, Prepares program director for Catholic Community Services of Western Washington. (See info box below to donate to the Prepares Valentine Appeal.)

Parishes can choose the parts of the program that work best for them and meet the needs in their community, such as providing basic needs items, serving as a companion to a mom or starting parent support or play groups.

During 2021, more than 5,700 families were served in the archdiocese (just over 100 families were matched with companions), which “certainly translates into more than 10,000 babies, young children, mothers, fathers and other family members touched by the ministry of Prepares,” Patulot said in an email. 

St. Gabriel’s group started by delivering bags of clothing and necessities to moms, before opening the boutique four years ago, allowing moms to come to them. They still do some deliveries, Houck said.

For instance, a lot of families from Guatemala live in Belfair and may not be able to get to the boutique in Port Orchard (about 12 miles away), she said. Some of the Prepares volunteers are from Prince of Peace, so they’re able to deliver items to the Belfair families, she added.

New and gently used children’s clothing awaits moms who come to the St. Gabriel/Prince of Peace Prepares baby boutique. Photo: Cheryl Gudger

Houck, who has been a Prepares volunteer for about six years, was regularly delivering to a “very young” single mom who had a young child and didn’t have a car. Every month, the mom emailed Houck a list of needed items and Houck delivered them to the mom’s apartment.

“My conversations with her were either email or five minutes delivering and leaving,” Houck said.

Just before Christmas, Houck learned how much those visits mattered to the mom, who announced she was moving to New York. As Houck turned to leave for the last time, the young woman told her, “‘I just want you to know that I never knew that anyone really cared about me.’”

“I’m still stunned by that,” Houck said, reflecting that her regular presence in the young mom’s life “told her what God wanted her to know­ — unbeknownst to me.”

The Prepares ministry is about showing love and acceptance, Houck said. And, as Gudger said, “it’s about celebrating everyone participating — it’s celebrating the moms, it’s celebrating the volunteers.”

Support Prepares this Valentine’s Day

The Prepares Valentine Appeal fundraising campaign is underway. Donate to the Prepares program in Western Washington by using this link.