fort wayne – In its first communitywide baby shower, A Baby’s Closet has taken in baby clothes and diapers, blankets and shampoo. Some folks have dropped off one item, while others have given bags and bags of donations.

Since Oct. 1, A Baby’s Closet, of Associated Churches of Fort Wayne & Allen County, has been conducting the shower, inviting people to donate baby items for the Closet to pass out to women in need. The shower concluded Saturday at DeBrand Fine Chocolates on Auburn Park Drive. Anyone who donated an item to the collection received a free piece of DeBrand chocolate. An hour after starting the celebration, a handful of baby items covered the bottom of the donation barrel.

“I think the goal is awareness,” said Steve Staley, director of development for the Closet. He said he hoped the shower alerted the community to the need for baby donations to help women who may be on Medicaid or have a disability.

Throughout the month, donations have been coming in to the local donation sites – at all Fort Wayne Peerless Cleaners and YMCA branches. A local church donated more than $2,000 worth of baby clothes Friday, and a local dentist has been raising money all month, collecting change to split between A Baby’s Closet and his own mission trip. An Indiana Extension Homemakers Association group gathered so many donations, it wrapped them all and had Elaine Williamson sit down and open each gift.

“I sat there like I was a new mother,” said Williamson, A Baby’s Closet director. “I had to sit there and open packages. It was so much fun.”

A Baby’s Closet has been around for 20 years and helped nearly 1,000 women last year, said Carolyn Gorom, site director for the group. So far this year, the group has helped more than 1,200 women.

Williams said women who need help obtaining baby items earn vouchers by completing certain tasks – receiving prenatal screening, attending parenting classes, getting their babies immunized – and they can cash in those vouchers for necessary items.

Gorom shared a story of a woman who called looking for a crib and a mattress. She had a few-months-old baby at home and had been saving her vouchers to “purchase” a crib, for 18 vouchers.

While many of the items given by A Baby’s Closet are donated, the group does buy items that need to meet regulations, such as cribs and car seats, Staley said. Older cribs are no longer permitted because many have a drop-down side, which is no longer allowed. And a new mother can’t even leave the hospital without a car seat.

Saturday’s celebration, which ran from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., saw a number of miscellaneous items donated. By 2:30 p.m., the donation barrel had sleepers and blankets, diapers and bibs, ointments and baby wipes.

“Oh, this is the best part of it,” Williamson said as she dug through the donations.