ORANGE : Needy Families Given 20 Infant Car Seats

In a new project for low-income families, members of the Justina Lowry Auxiliary donated 20 infant car seats and a box filled with teddy bears to the infant special care unit at UCI Medical Center.

The auxiliary, composed of professional women, donated the $40 Cosco car seats--designed to carry infants, including premature babies--for distribution to families that ordinarily would not be able to afford them, said Dorothy Waffarn, a UCI nurse practitioner and a member of the auxiliary, which is an arm of the Orange Assistance League.

“This is an ongoing project,” Waffarn said. “We plan to do at least 20 car seats a month,” and probably an equal number of teddy bears.

Until now, Waffarn said, some needy families were driving their babies home without a special infant seat, in violation of state law. Others would call a taxi and then discover that “the taxi driver wouldn’t take them because they didn’t have a car seat,” Waffarn said.

UCI’s infant special care unit treats 1,000 premature and critically ill newborns a year. Many of the families are indigent, Waffarn said.

“Especially after an extended illness, they haven’t had the money to buy a car seat,” she said.

The auxiliary has previously donated two rocking chairs to the unit. Members also run “the Hug Project,” in which they regularly donate teddy bears to local police and to the Orangewood children’s home.