BMO Harris Bank Packs Hundreds of New Parent Kits
Skip to Content
United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County

BMO Harris Bank Packs Hundreds of New Parent Kits

Main Content


BMO Harris Bank employee volunteers with their packed New Parent Kits

June 30, 2017

Produced by Katie Kuhn, United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County

BMO Harris Bank wants to support every parent and baby with the supplies they need to succeed.

As part of their enterprise-wide BMO Volunteer Day, 80 local BMO Harris Bank employees came together to pack ‘New Parent kits’ to welcome babies into the community and make sure their parents have all the essentials.

The goal of this project, helping fill the gaps in critically-needed items and resources for parents after their hospital stay, is close to BMO Harris Bank’s mission.

Supporting the well-being of our entire community is important to BMO, and we understand that being a new parent can be stressful,” said Raquel Filmanowicz, Director of U.S. Community Affairs. “For the last five years we have made significant investments to support Healthy Birth Outcomes in Milwaukee, and this volunteer opportunity was definitely a good fit.” 

In 2012, BMO Harris Bank announced they would provide a three-year $750,000 grant to United Way to support the work around Healthy Birth Outcomes. In November 2014, the bank announced it had renewed its investment with an additional $750,000, three-year grant, bringing their total gift to $1.5 million over six years.

For some employees, this particular project was close to the heart: “As a parent of premature twins, it makes it more important to me to pack New Parent kits,” said Kristy Parisey. “I like to help out in the community, and BMO strives to help us do that.”

The kits included diapers, wipes, tearless shampoo, baby lotion, pacifiers, a bottle, socks, and other items alongside important materials and resources for parents that may need additional assistance with things like housing and food.

 “This project is something I felt we could give to new parents -- something to start out with, something to encourage them,” said Christy Hendrickson, another BMO Harris Bank volunteer. “We want to show them that the community welcomes their new baby.”

At the end of the day, 350 New Parent kits were distributed to agency program partners funded though United Way’s Healthy Birth Outcomes initiative. Learn more about the work of these programs here.

Feeling inspired? Host a New Parent kit-packing event with your work group! Contact Karissa at 414.263.8160 or by email at kgretebeck@unitedwaygmwc.org to get started.

Have something to say? LEAVE A COMMENT:

The following required items were not provided or are in the wrong format. Please provide the required responses and submit again:

Your email address will not be published. All fields Required.

Name: 
  Please enter your name
  Please enter a valid email
Comment: 
  Please enter a comment

United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukehsa County blog and social media presence is designed as a source for information, sharing and collaboration about United Way and health and human service related topics. As part of our commitment to our readers, we expect all posters to abide by the following rules:
 • Posts and comments should be on topic, conversational, and serve to educate or entertain  
 • Posts and comments may not be unlawful, fraudulent, threatening, libelous, defamatory, discriminatory, harassing, obscene or otherwise rude or in poor taste  
 • Posts and comments may not be used for any commercial purpose or otherwise to promote any outside organization or its activities
United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County reserves the right, at our discretion, to remove any post or to revoke a user’s privilege to post to our page. Comments found to be in conflict with the guidelines above will be removed promptly.
Comments are not necessarily those of United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County and its employees and we do not guarantee the accuracy of these posts.