Tuesday, Mar. 23, 2010

Helping others, help themselves

Local student spends spring break helping to build boutique for mothers

Emily Jarrett, Journal Staff

Most high school students spend their spring break sleeping, hanging out with friends and enjoying their week off from school.

But for Blue Springs South High School junior Caleb Brown, those days were spent sanding, building and painting.

Brown was helping create the Mommy & Me Boutique, a store that allows the mothers of Rachel House to purchase necessary baby items such as clothing, diapers, cribs and other baby needs.

“I was amazed by how Caleb has really brought this together,” said Elaine Tennant, the center director for the Rachel House location in Blue Springs. “But, like I told him, he’s doing more than just finishing walls, he’s helping these young women learn to be self-sufficient.”

Rachel House, which has administrative offices in Lee’s Summit, is a faith-based program which provides women with unplanned pregnancies counseling services, mentoring, parenting classes and medical care, for those who qualify.

“Clients of Rachel House can also earn ‘mommy money’ which allows them to shop in our ‘store,’” Tennant explained. “They earn the money at the Lee’s Summit location and then they shop (in Blue Springs).”

Originally, Tennant said, the store was just a small room, packed with donated or gently-used baby items. Rachel House administration decided to revamp the concept and turn the back garage at the Blue Springs location into a room with a boutique feel.

“We don’t want our clients to feel they’re just getting a hand-out at a thrift store,” Tennant said. “They’re shopping, using their mommy money and we want them to get the most real experience they can.”

The garage, however, needed a lot of work. That’s where Brown came in.

“My church is involved in Rachel House and a member knew I was looking for some volunteer work to become an Eagle Scout,” explained Brown. “So she suggested this and I decided to go for it.”

Brown’s stepfather, Bret Jensen, said he tried to talk him out of it because it was such a big project.

“He’s helped me with house projects before but nothing like this,” Jensen said with a laugh. “He had to talk me into helping him, but once we got started everything went fairly smoothly.”

Before they could even start however, Brown had to raise the funds he would need to fix up the room.

“I basically just went to every hardware store in town, talking to them about Rachel House and what the boutique was,” Brown explained. “Some donated money. Home Depot donated five gallons of paint and some of my church members donated money too. Everything adds up.”

Brown and Jensen, along with some help from other Eagle Scouts, spent two days building walls, fixing holes, putting up trim, painting, mudding and spraying the ceiling in the room.

“Caleb is really phase one of this project,” Tennant said. “Next, we’re going to have people come in and attach shelves to the walls and then we’ll start loading in all our baby items.”

Tennant said she is excited to see the finished project, and knows her clients will be excited as well. “Our motto here is ‘helping make a difference, two lives at a time,’” Tennant said. “We’re helping these girls change their lifestyles, get on track and be a better mother.

“It’ll be great to finally have enough space to bring out all our baby items and display them like a real store. I know the mothers will appreciate the ‘normalness’ of being able to shop, even if the items are donated.” Brown said given the opportunity, he would do it again.

“This project is helping me earn my Eagle Scout, but more importantly, it’s helping the community,” Brown said.

To learn more about Rachel House or how you can donate to the Mommy & Me Boutique, call 816-875-1059 or go to www.rachelhousefriends.org.

To reach Journal reporter Emily Jarrett, call 816-282-7018 or e-mail ejarrett@bluespringsjournal.com.