Back on April 23rd 2016, the Real Diaper Circle of SD&G held the 5th annual Cornwall Great Cloth Diaper Change. This year, the event was held at Ecole Elemantaire Catholique Notre Dame. The Local chapter of Le Leche League, with leader Christine Piette, had a booth, as well as the local Babywearing Group, with admin Rebecca Sorrell. Love Bug Accessories by Sandra Hart, Laframboise Country Decor and Sun Kiss Photorgraphy’s Kasey Laframboise also were in attendance. Jamie Nicholson-Tyo also held down a table for our local Cornwall Car Seats, local chapter of SEATS for Kids. We also had local teens and parents, as well as the principle of the school, volunteer on different areas of the event.

The event was successful in raising nearly $100 for the Real Diaper Association, with 25 caregiver and infant/toddler pairs, including a 3 week old baby up to a 3 year old child, and 2 sets of twins. Over all, the events worldwide raised over $2000 for the RDA, with over 5000 pairs, in 19 countries! Though we didn’t break a record for numbers, we did have several new locations, breaking cultural and language barriers worldwide, including countries that had not before participated, particularly in Mexico, South Africa, Philippines, Argentina, Finland, Singapore, and Peru. Other repeat countries include Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Great Britain, Ireland, Japan, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Spain, and the USA. Who is the Real Diaper Circle of SD&G? We’re a group of local mothers (well, at this time, just myself, but I’m always open to add more helpers to my list, let me know if you’re interested!) who educate and assist in the cloth diapering journey. At this time, we can be accessed by our website, our facebook page or our facebook group, or by spotting the sign up at local vendor fairs and events! The sole purpose of the local Chapter is to educate. On types and styles of diapers, including fabric and brand options, what is available locally, how to purchase what will work best for you and budgetting. We outline the basics of cloth diaper laundry, washing and drying and what to do about stains, stink, and what detergents work best for local cloth diapering families.

I started teaching workshops 3 and a half years ago, have been officially the first Canadian real diaper circle for just over 2 years and have held the GCDC events for 5 years here in Cornwall. I currently am cloth diapering almost 15 month old twins, and also cloth diapered my now 5 year old full time from a month old, and part time for my now 8 and a half year old. I run the website and faebooks for my business Darolotty’s as well as the RDC of SD&G and have had experience as admin in the local facebook group for Cornwall cloth diapering families (what is a buy/sell group as well at chatter, what differs from the RDC group what is specifically advice and assistance, the group has been handed down to some other capable hands as I’ve decided to focus more on my own projects). As of now, I run two workshops monthly, every 2nd Thursday of the month at the Early Years Center, at 11am, and every last Saturday of the month at the Agape centre, at 2pm.

Next year’s event is going to be bigger and better then ever as I have already started planning! We’re working on a good location but we’re planning to play more on the Earth Day theme and host an Earth Day Baby Fair. We’re planning more vendors and activities, and maybe even a car seat clinic in the afternoon! Stay tuned for details later in the year.