Lourdes Collects New PJs to Benefit Domestic Violence Survivors

From now through Thanksgiving, Osborn Family Health Center – a primary and specialty care center that is part of the Lourdes Health System – is collecting new pajamas in all styles and sizes for its fourth annual Mom’s Pajamas drive. Mom’s Pajamas is a nonprofit organization supporting survivors of domestic violence living in local shelters.

Founded by former Osborn Family Health Center social work intern Crystal Allen and her sisters, Mom’s Pajamas seeks to keep alive the memory of their mother Laura Allen, who died in a motorcycle accident in 2010. The girls often gave pajamas to their mother for Christmas, and following her death began donating pajamas to a domestic violence shelter where they stayed during their youth.

“Oftentimes, the women who show up at the shelter have only the clothes on their back and are given clothes that have been donated,” Crystal says on the organization’s website page, www.momspajamas.org. “A new pair of pajamas, belonging only to the survivor, is meant to be comforting and serve as a new beginning.”

Last year, more than 400 pairs of new pajamas were collected. This year, the organization is hoping to collect at least 500 pairs. Pajamas are distributed to women’s shelters in Cumberland, Gloucester and Camden counties.

New pajamas in all sizes and styles can be donated at Osborn Family Health Center, 1601 Haddon Avenue, Camden (across the street from Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center). Osborn’s reception area is open during regular business hours (8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Monday through Friday). You also can purchase pajamas directly through Amazon at http://a.co/2EWub9i.

For more information about the Lourdes drive, please contact Deborah Bokas at 856-757-3542. For more information about Mom’s Pajamas, visit www.facebook.com/momspajamas/ or www.momspajamas.org.