Lorain with Littles
Please help us to become an official non-profit organization, as we continue to grow we would love to keep offering our current programming and so much more, we feel as if we could benefit Lorain County...
Leader
Anneisa T + Sarah P
Location
2483 N RIDGE RD E LORAIN, OH 44055
About the project
We are an aspiring non-profit organization called Lorain with Littles! We focus on sharing information about free and affordable family-friendly things to do all over Lorain County! We also focus on putting on monthly events that we call Play Dates! These events are an amazing way to showcase all there is to do in our community, they are always free and open to the public! We have had events at Lorain Public Library, Oberlin Public Library, Elyria Altitude, Amherst Healthplex Splash Pad, French Creek Reservation, Donald Shuester’s Pumpkin Patch, Amherst Public Library, soon to be Amherst Park Lanes and lots of amazing playgrounds all around our amazing county! We would love to be able to continue these monthly events. We usually put on these events on Saturday's in the hopes that all caregivers have equal opportunity to attend. At these events, we provide a themed craft, a coloring station, puzzle stations, sensory bins, a small story time, free raffles, as well as free snacks and drinks for kids and their caregivers.
Something we also like to do is have a local community resource table and/or agency available so that people can get connected with services available to them! Whatever city we are holding our play date in is very important to us, we love to boost the excitement and the economy within that community so we often ask small local businesses to donate items or gift certificates for us to raffle. Although we do not hold an official 501(c)3 designation from the IRS, we have been operating as a not-for-profit Organization and we are desperately hoping that this campaign will help us to achieve that goal! We are so thankful to all the people who have helped support us along the way, but if we're being honest, we (Anneisa and Sarah) have been operating this Organization even though we are "just" stay-at-home moms. If you would like to further discuss please feel free to contact us anytime! Thank you guys so so much for even taking the time to read this!
The Steps
As soon as Cash is in hand we will sign a contract with Bryte Bridge and begin preparing our paper work to submit to the state! The goal is to Submit by the end of February! Our website can be up and running within 4-6 weeks after having the funding to complete it! We will plan the next several play dates with the rest of the funding!
Why we‘re doing it
We are doing this mostly because we love seeing how genuinely happy it makes the little ones! Another very important reason is that it gives caregivers a chance to connect with other adults!!! We met at a library story time and became really good friends, and that is how Lorain with Littles began! We want to give that to other people who might just need a friend right now. We felt as if post-pandemic, people really just didn't know about what free/affordable things were out there to do with kids! We have so many amazing libraries, nature centers, indoor play areas, events put on by schools and churches, awesome playgrounds, and so much more! In the beginning, we thought we'd just be sharing information on our Social Media pages regarding when and where these events were taking place, but families were asking to hang out with us. So we put on our first play date and over 100 people showed up!!!! Since then, they have continued every month and have gotten even better. Over the summer we also offered weekly themed Story Times as well as a special meet and greet with Blippi.
Our goal is for this organization to withstand the test of time and one day we might even be able to hand it down to our own littles. Our lives have changed so much for the better since starting Lorain with Littles and we really just want to be able to change one more life because of it!