The community and staff at Franciscan Health have made the organization’s 2021 diaper drive an event to remember.

System officials said enough donations have been made to fund the purchase of up to 500,000 diapers, more than 10 times the number from the previous year’s drive. October is designated Diaper Insecurity Month, the Franciscan Health Foundation still seeks additional donations to help local families with a daily need.

Rick Peltier, executive director of the Franciscan Health Foundation, credits Foundation Board Chair Joe Allegretti’s desire to make a bigger impact in the drive’s fifth year. Allegretti reached out to the medical executive committee at Franciscan Health Dyer/Hammond/Munster to see if they could assist.

“I thought it would be great if we had 500,000 diapers,” Allegretti said. “Hopefully people will feel like this is a good cause and will donate.”

The medical executive committee responded with a $20,000 gift, which leverages Franciscan’s buying power to purchase disposable diapers for as little as 5 cents a diaper. Allegretti then reached out to Schepel Auto Group, which responded by subsidizing the purchase of baby wipes to distribute with the diapers.

“The prenatal assistance program would like to thank our medical board and Schepel Auto Group for their support and generous donation to our diaper bank,” said Alexandra Grelecki, Franciscan Health Hammond prenatal care coordinator. “The funds donated will allow us to purchase up to 500,000 diapers and will provide hundreds of infants with diapers for a whole year.”

Donations to Franciscan Health’s prenatal assistance can be made online at www.franciscanhealthfoundation.org/DiaperDrive.