PAYETTE, Idaho — Payette Head Start helps set rural Idaho families up for success by offering on-site or in-home child care and a place to get essential items for free. They are one of the local organizations that will benefit from the Idaho News 6 Community Baby Shower on June 13th.
You can donate money to support the Community Baby Shower here. Proceeds go directly to local charities, and this year, they go even further – with the Scripps Howard Fund matching donations up to 10-thousand dollars.
(Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)
“No child should be left behind because of their parent’s financial situations,” says Chaylene Gauthier, a Payette Head Start Mom.
“My experience at Head Start has been phenomenal. I have been a Head Start parent for 14 years and all seven of my children have attended Head Start,” added Gauthier.
She tells me she sees a difference in how her children approach education after going through the program.
“They’re always wanting to be on time, they don’t want to miss school. They understand the importance of it. They were always the kids that were the kindergarten helpers,” says Gauthier.
“Payette Head Start, we serve pregnant moms and children birth to five,” says Synaida Cortez, the Program Management Specialist at Payette Head Start.
She tells me that the organization has a long-standing relationship with the community.
“We have been here for a very long time since 1965,” says Cortez.
The organization offers support for families including on-site or in-home child care and a place to get essential items for free.
“So this is our community baby store for our parents that are enrolled in our head start program. when they are in need of something like in between paydays, they can come in and say, like if they’re out of diapers or wipies or need formula we say well come on we’ll go figure out if we have that in our baby store for you guys to utilize,” says Barbara Cabrera, who interacts with Payette Head Start families as a home visitor.
She tells me the community baby shower has a huge impact on their ability to support rural families.
“Without the community baby shower, we would really be struggling to help our families because we rely on the community to help our parents that are financially strapped right now because everything has gone up in the economy… with the support of channel 6 and the wonderful community we have we get to stock our store throughout the whole school year for them to have stuff to use,” added Cabrera.
“It takes a village to raise a child, and being in a Headstart family is the best village you could be in,” says Gauthier.
