Today we’d like to introduce you to Vic Velivis.
Hi Vic, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Early in 2012, I was starting to think about my retirement. I knew it was a few years away and I also knew I needed something to keep me busy when I did retire. I thought I had found the perfect fun thing to do, sell hot dogs at summer festivals and events. I actually purchased a hot dog cart. Then a local crisis nursery appeared on a morning talk show. They explained that they offered free childcare services but had run out of diapers and their clients did not have diapers either. So here we had a free nursery service for low-income families that no one could take advantage of because no one had diapers. The end result was parents missed work or appointments because of the lack of diapers. This situation prompted me to begin to purchase and donate diapers to this nursery.
About nine months after I started donating diapers, our local NPR station (KUER) featured a segment on the diaper bank movement in the United States. It was in this segment I learned that no government safety-net program was supplying diapers to low-income families. Like many people, I believe some programs such as WIC or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) supplied diapers to families in need. They did not! Because of this, ordinary citizens had organized non-profit diaper banks in thirty-five states. After a little more research, I discovered that there was no diaper bank in Utah. I easily came to the conclusion that this was a much more worthwhile retirement project than my hot dog cart. I called a few friends and we founded the Utah Diaper Bank which was officially recognized by the IRS as a 501 C3 public charity in March of 2013.
That first year we distributed a little over 11,000 diapers to other non-profits along the Wasatch front. Most of that first year’s donation came from a local junior high school’s diaper drive. In order to raise awareness of diaper needs we rented a booth at the local farmer’s market, talked to anyone that would listen and were fortunate to be invited on some local talk shows. As people became aware of this need, diaper drives and donations started to happen. Others volunteered their time to wrap, pack, and deliver diapers
This grassroots effort has continued to grow as an all-volunteer organization operating out of two donated facilities. In 2022 the Utah Diaper Bank is on track to distribute over 1.2 million diapers to its partners along the Wasatch Front as well as 14 other cities throughout the state of Utah.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Many of the obstacles we experienced have been overcome because of the generosity of Utahns. As I mentioned, we’re an all-volunteer organization that operated out my garage/house for the first five years. As a single guy, I didn’t have a motorcycle in the kitchen but I did have diapers in every room. I talked to everyone I met about donating a facility. A local TV station even sent over a film crew to show my house filled with diapers. Finally, a generous company (WEBB production) contacted me with an offer of donated space in a modern warehouse facility. This warehouse space allowed us to continue to grow, but was not a good fit to bring in volunteers. Two years ago, another generous individual contacted me with the offer of a donated flex space to operate out of. It is the combination of these two spaces that has allowed us to grow into shipping over a million diapers annually.
Another major hurdle was overcome when the Utah Food Bank offered to distribute diapers across the state for us. We make up pallets once a quarter and they deliver them to their food banks throughout Utah. They get a steady, reliable supply of diapers and we get transportation.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Safety-net programs do not provide services or funds to cover diaper expenses! The Utah Diaper Bank exists to fill this crucial gap in social services for children. Without an adequate supply of diapers, parents are faced with reusing diapers or leaving a child in a messy diaper which creates many health concerns. We are a member of the National Diaper Bank Network which consists of over 250 diaper banks across the US, together we distributed over 188 million diapers in 2021.
The Utah Diaper Bank collects and purchases diapers for distribution to those Utahns in need of diaper assistance. We operate under the idea that every child deserves a clean diaper. In addition to collecting and distributing diapers our goal is to raise awareness of the problem and to establish diaper distribution networks across Utah.
Every year diaper banks across the country celebrate Diaper Need Awareness week the last week of September. We’ve been fortunate to have the governors and mayors issue proclamations. The county library system sponsors a month-long diaper drive, and Regan Outdoor advertising donates multiple billboards all in an effort to raise awareness to this problem
When I explain our reason for doing this, I always mention that the WIC programs do not supply diapers. The truth is they do now. About four years ago, we started suppling diapers to a county WIC program. Since then, we have added two more county WIC programs and are currently on the verge of adding additional WIC programs in the state. We also supply other government programs that serve children in need of diapers.
The other accomplishment that we are so very proud of is the crisis nursery that ran out of diapers in 2011 that caught my attention and got all this started, has never run out of diapers since we started distributing diapers to them.
Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
I’m not sure I’d call it luck, but we have been the recipient of incredible generosity since day one. I’ve already mentioned our donated facilities. Both appeared at a time when we desperately needed them.
Our largest diaper drive is conducted each year by a national non-profit organization of builders (Home-Aid) that opened an office in Salt Lake a few years ago. Throughout the year they do a variety of amazing projects for the community, but once a year they conduct a diaper drive for us. In their first year, they donated diapers and cash that accounted for over 100,000 diapers. This past year that number rose to over 500,000 diapers.
As we approach our tenth anniversary next March, we see challenges ahead. If we continue at the same growth rate, we will need additional facilities. We are proud to be an all-volunteer organization, but we’re not sure that we can continue unless we are able to raise sufficient funds to hire one or two employees. Right now, I don’t have a solution for these obstacles, but ten years ago I never would have thought we’d be shipping over one million diapers a year. So, we are optimistic that our “luck” will continue and the need will be fulfilled at the appropriate moment
Contact Info:
- Website: www.utahdiaperbank.org
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/utahdiaperbank
