Cyndi is a mom. She is also a daughter. Those two roles come together as she volunteers with Hope Supply Co. Through the prompting of a long-time friend, Cyndi Helbing began showing up often six years ago to put together packets of diapers and to help in other ways, including serving on the planning committee for the Craig Miller Swing for Hope Golf Classic fundraiser.
As she volunteers, Cyndi thinks about the moms who will benefit from her help. “Having had two kids myself, I’ve gone through those years of diapers.” Noting the higher cost of larger diapers, “I hated when they moved up a size. I was like, ‘Can you still stay a little bit smaller?’” she recalls. Although she was able to cover the costs herself, she is mindful of the moms who aren’t able to do that.
“As I pack the diapers I wonder who’s going to get these. I wonder, does she expect these, does she appreciate these? Is she happy or is she stressed? Do they know what they’re having for dinner?” Cyndi muses.
But when she is putting the diapers into packets, she also thinks about her own mom, who passed away five and a half years ago. “My mom grew up on a working farm. They had three milk cows and two bulls. They had just enough to sustain us. They would sell at the farmer’s market on Saturday to buy the things that they don’t grow. She made a dollar go a really long way. And you can’t help but learn some of that,” Cyndi says in explaining why she understands how hard it can be to care for a family.
Mostly, though, Cyndi remembers her mom for her love of children. “It was all about kids. That was just her thing.” Her love for children led her to oversee childcare centers for over 25 years. Cyndi recalls, “Her motto was, ‘Every child is born a genius.’” One time when Cyndi was filling bags at Hope Supply Co., she remembered it was her mother’s birthday. “I was packing size five diapers, and there wasn’t another volunteer group in there, so I just had my AirPods in and at one point I felt like I was channeling [my mom]. She was right there with me—it was really cooI. I cried a little bit, but it’s always a good kind of happy cry for me,” she explains.
Being a mother and daughter motivate Cyndi’s service with Hope Supply Co. “I like intermixing with the women and the babies and the kids and the families because that’s it. You’re on the front line. You really see the success of what you’re doing and that they really appreciate it and they don’t take it for granted,” she says. “I’m glad [my mother] taught me to be giving, to give back.”