A motherly kind of connection
July 9, 2008
By Laura Geggel
Groups begin in Valley to help those new to the community
When Denise Sebring moved to North Bend from Louisiana with her family, she didn’t know any of her neighbors. So, after living in the area for nine months, she found herself looking online for families with young children who could be playmates with her and her son, Tristan.“It was the dead of winter and I was going stir-crazy,” said Sebring. “I needed to get some sort of friendship network going. I said, ‘There has to be other women out there like me.’”
Luckily for her, Jeannine Martindale, a mother on Snoqualmie Ridge, had started a mother’s group a year earlier. Martindale, a 2006 transplant from Sequim, said she was excited when she saw children playing all over the Ridge, but she found it difficult to actually meet families.
“No one seemed to talk to each other,” Martindale said.
Martindale posted SnoValley Moms - which now has 167 members - on Meetup.com this past winter.
Sebring joined the SnoValley Moms group and quickly began organizing fieldtrips. On a recent trip, mothers and children learned about fire safety and the Cedar River Watershed from Smokey Bear and the rangers. The group also organizes family activities and mothers’ nights out - like glassblowing and bowling.
The group has a suggested donation, but many of the events are play dates held in the park. The group has organized some family picnics, but mostly mothers and children ages infant to 5-years-old attend the meetings.
Member Beth Young used to work for Nintendo in Redmond, but quit after the birth of her second child.
“I’ve made a lot of friends who have kids,” Young said. “Before, most of my friends were not married and those who were didn’t have kids.”
Young called the group supportive, adding that they cook meals for new moms and schedule events that work best with everyone’s schedule.
“There’s a lot of first-time moms,” Sebring said, adding that everyone has advice for family projects and challenges like potty-training.
The group plans to start a clothing drive for Eastside Baby Corner in Issaquah, which gives supplies to children of needy families.
About 80 percent of the moms in the SnoValley Meetup group are from the Ridge, Martindale said, with the rest of the mothers coming from Fall City, North Bend and surrounding areas.
Brenna Vukovich, who recently moved to North Bend from Kent, is starting a new group for mothers in North Bend called MOMS Club, a non-profit international support group for at-home mothers.
Vukovich belonged to a MOMS Club chapter in Kent and is looking forward to starting one in North Bend.
“I just want moms to be able to meet other moms,” Vukovich said. “I moved here and I didn’t know anybody. You don’t know what there is to do and you’re kind of trapped in the house.”
The MOMS Club will have monthly meetings with speakers, moms’ night out activities, field trips, holiday activities and service projects benefiting local children in the community, Vukovich said.
As membership grows, the club may organize specific activity groups for parents and children sharing a similar interest. Vukovich encouraged all mothers, whether they are stay-at-home, part-time or working from home, to join her group. Membership fees are set at $25 per year.
The new International MOMS Club will have a membership drive at the covered area in EJ Roberts Park, at Northeast Sixth Street and Thrasher Avenue North in the Silver Creek development at 10 a.m. July 15.
Meetings will be held the first Tuesday of every month, with the first meeting on Aug. 5 at 10 in EJ Roberts Park. For more information, call Vukovich at 888-1387 or e-mail her at bvukovich@comcast.net.
Reporter Laura Geggel can be reached at 392-6434 x221 or lgeggel@snovalleystar.com.
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