West Palm Beach, Florida – Clinics Can Help (CCH), Florida’s only nonprofit organization that collects and donates medical equipment and supplies for children and adults in need, hosted its sixth annual Cribs “R” for Infant and Baby Safety (CRIBS) event on Thursday, March 12 at their West Palm Beach warehouse. Thanks to the generosity of The Law Enforcement Trust Fund through the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office and the Knights of Columbus, 300 new Pack ‘n Play® portable cribs were donated to families who are unable to afford safe sleeping environments for their infants. The cribs were distributed through eight partner organizations including: Adopt-A-Family of the Palm Beaches; Glades Initiative; Caridad Center; El Sol Resource Center; Families First of Palm Beach County; Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies Coalition; Healthy Steps; The Lord’s Place; and Place of Hope.
This year’s event featured a new partnership with the Cotton Bottom Diaper Bank. Founded in 2019, The Cotton Bottom Diaper Bank is the first free standing diaper bank in Palm Beach County for low-income families in need. The organization will be generously donating diapers to 2020 crib recipients.
Clinics Can Help’s CEO and founder, Owen O’Neill, said his organization is proud to work the local agencies that will distribute the cribs. “Together, we’ve all been able to see a dramatic decrease in the amount of sleep-related deaths in our state. This year marked our sixth CRIBS event,” said O’Neill, who also raised part of this year’s total through a local Facebook campaign. “We’ve provided over 1000 cribs to protect over 1000 babies to date, and we’re not going to stop until we know every child in our county has a safe place to sleep,” he said.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, a safe sleeping environment is very important for the safety of any infant, toddler and/or newborn. On average, 3,700 babies die each year from crib-related deaths. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is responsible for more infant deaths than any other cause for babies from one month to one year old. According to local Pediatric Sleep Specialist, Dr. Shahriar Shahzeidi, babies are three times as likely to die from sleep-related complications when sharing a bed with an adult.
Founded in 2005, Clinics Can Help was created to assist children and adults in need of medical equipment and supplies vital to their recovery or quality of life. Individuals can also donate their gently used medical equipment so it can be cleaned, refurbished and donated to those in need. In the last twelve months, Clinics Can Help assisted more than 2,600 clients new by donating more than $1.1 million worth of medical equipment and supplies.