The non-profit charity organization MOMS Orange County honored mothers on Saturday, June 6 with a lunch-in event at Knott’s Berry Farm. The event was sponsored by Knott’s Berry Farm, The Goldwin Foundation, Chick-Fil-A and Shakey’s Restaurants, Noodle and Boo, Sephora, Enjoy Life Eat Freely, Babies R US, and Surf Sweets. The event itself was to draw more attention to the organization’s cause of helping new mother’s learn how to properly care for their children by providing them with information from community services, health coordination, and education on how to be a more effective parent within the baby’s early years.
“This is the first time ever that we have held such an event at the Knott’s Berry Farm theme park location,” said MOMS Orange County Chief Program Officer Yvette Bojorequez. “We would like to take the time to thank the Goldwin Foundation for the financial grant that they so generously donated to our program. We reached out to them and they responded in a very big way.”
MOMS started in 1992, and thrives off of donations and assistance from various other enterprises who were willing to lend an ear and a helping hand to the organization’s mission of assisting as many as 3,500 at-risk mothers a year within the jurisdiction if the Orange County. MOMS specializes in helping women who are living below the poverty line, as well as assist new mothers who are victims of domestic violence.
“We conduct checks on the babies and their families once every month to check on the child’s developmental skills, health, and how the child interacts with the parents, and the environment around them,” says Bojorenquez, who is also a trained nurse. “We offer services to the babies and their families in English, Spanish, or Vietnamese languages. Some of the specific assistance that we offer are classes in prenatal care, proper breast feeding, dancing classes, singing classes, new dad classes, and ‘Mommy and Me classes.’ We also offer up new ‘Mommy Support Group’ classes.”
MOMS tries to cover all bases when it comes to health screenings of the newly born children and their mothers. It is very important that the children stay up to par with the proper physical and intellectual growth that they will need when they first enter into pre-school and kindergarten. “We start the child and the parents’ overall education early, right from the very beginning,” states Bojorenquez. “We follow the growth of the mother and child from the first nine months of pregnancy, to the child’s birthday. All of the services are totally free, and we never charge the mother or father anything.”
If the child is over one year old, and the parents still need assistance, MOMS will not leave the family, but will provide a referral for them to other organizations that will carry on MOMS work into the child’s latter years. MOMS has partnerships with other organizations that will take upon the family’s particular case, and will assist them in their future endeavors. Organizations like “The Bridges Network,” “The Regional Center,” and “Readiness on the Road Program” from the Boys and Girls Club,” continue the foundational work that MOMS had already provided.
“The most important thing that we want our clients to know is that every parent has worries at their baby’s birth,” says MOMS CEO Pamela Pimentel, who is also a professional nure. “We want every parent to know that we are always here for them to help them on their journey. We are here to build the mother and father’s confidence in their parenting skills when it comes to raising their baby.”
Theresa and Jorge Figueroa concur with Pimentel’s description of all of the services that MOMS provide. The organization helped out the family by going all in with helping their son, George Figueroa.
“Pimentel and the MOMS organization are truly a blessing,” said Theresa Figueroa. “They are like my true family. I first came into contact with them when I was first having George at St. Joseph’s Hospital in the city of Orange. Nurses that were helping me with my baby and my diabetes referred me to MOMS and gave me flyers.
“I am so thankful for all that they did for me. I now feel like I am more in control in means of helping my baby to grow up much more healthier and strong. His socialization skills have really taken off, and I owe all of the developmental tools that I learned to the MOMS staff. They have helped me to grow to be a better mother.”
