The Lancaster Hempfield Rotary Club recently partnered with nonprofit organization Parish Resource Center to support expecting mothers in the local region. On Sept. 25, volunteers from the Lancaster Hempfield Rotary Club assembled 92 kits of items for infants at Parish Resource Center's facility, located at 2160 Lincoln Highway East, Lancaster. The kits will be distributed to expecting mothers through Union Community Care, a medical provider that offers prenatal services at a variable cost depending on clients' budgets.

In the first phase of the project, the Lancaster Hempfield Rotary Club received a list from Parish Resource Center of the items needed for the baby kits. Each kit includes a diaper bag, diapers, sanitary wipes, a nasal aspirator, a blanket and clothing items such as onesies, sleepers and hats. The Rotary Foundation helped fund the purchase of the baby kit items through the Rotary District 7390 Grant Program, matching the contributions of the Lancaster Hempfield Rotary Club.

The project was proposed by one of the Lancaster Hempfield Rotary Club's members who discovered Parish Resource Center's community outreach initiatives. The club decided to pursue the partnership due to the baby kit program aligning with one of the Rotary Club's missions to advocate for mothers and children.

"The baby kits are a good starter package to make sure new mothers have what they need after they have their children," said Tony DeVito, president of the Lancaster Hempfield Rotary Club. "We like to do service projects that are locally based, and Parish Resource Center does outreach right here in Lancaster."

In addition to serving mothers and children, the Rotary Club has other missions that focus on areas including promoting peace, fighting disease, providing clean water, supporting education, growing local economies and protecting the environment. In recent years, the Lancaster Hempfield Rotary Club has completed projects to install new benches at local parks and has donated books to elementary schools in Hempfield School District. The organization also hosts community meals throughout the year at a local church, and it completes a biannual project to pick up trash along a 4-mile section of Harrisburg Pike.

The Lancaster Hempfield Rotary Club holds regular meetings from 7:15 to 8:15 a.m. on the first, third and fifth Tuesdays of every month at Loxley's Restaurant on Centerville Road. During meetings, members discuss potential service projects and host guest speakers to highlight a variety of topics and other organizations with similar goals. The last meeting featured a local historian who spoke about the artwork inside the dome of the Capitol building in Harrisburg.

The Lancaster Hempfield Rotary Club holds an annual Christmas wreath fundraiser to help support its community service initiatives. This is the first year that the club will sell wreaths at a roadside stand in addition to accepting presales. On Saturdays Dec. 7, 14 and 21, club members will operate a stand near Pinnacle Family Dental Care on Harrisburg Pike in Landisville.

For more information about the Lancaster Hempfield Rotary Club, visit lancasterhempfieldrotary.com.