On a chilly Saturday morning in March, the parking lot of Kalamazoo’s Urban Alliance building on Stockbridge Avenue was packed with cars. Inside, families with kids in strollers and wagons crowded a hallway outside the gym, waiting to get inside.
The groups were greeted by staff who handed them raffle tickets for prize items that sat on a table at the door to the gym. Among the prize bundles were a luxury postpartum care kit, a hoard of diapers and baby essentials and a pack and play. One couple used a translation app to ask which prizes they were allowed to use their tickets for.
Inside the gym, a baby shower was in full swing. But instead of one expectant parent being showered, it’s a celebration meant for the whole community…