Johnson's Baby Cares Aims To Help Families When Disaster Strikes

I have lived in Florida my entire life, so I have seen my fair share of natural disasters in the form of hurricanes. 2004 was a particularly bad year because we were hit with 3 major hurricanes in a matter of months. The first one, and the one that caused the most damage for us, was Charley. We weren't prepared. No one in Central Florida was. It wasn't supposed to come here. In fact, hundreds of families evacuated the west coast of Florida and sought shelter here in Orlando. Charley made a sudden turn at the last minute and came roaring through Central Florida. It was a quick moving storm, so it didn't last long, but it left a wake of destruction in it's path.

We were very lucky. Our new fence was a mess, with an entire section blown to the ground, and our palm trees were no longer upright, but we were safe and we our power was still on. Our neighbors weren't so lucky, though. Only my house and the house next door had power, while the rest of the neighborhood was out for a week. There were live power lines jumping around on our street, and a tree was upside down and inside the house across from us. The surrounding areas had the same issues, and this part of the city was pretty much shut down for several days while power was restored and the streets were cleaned up. It was a mess.

When Katrina hit in 2005, it made Charley look like a minor inconvenience. The devastation was tremendous. Lives were lost, and many families lost everything they owned when it made landfall on the Gulf Coast of Louisiana. I cannot even begin to imagine what those families went through. We have yet to experience a disaster here since our kids were born, and I hope we don't ever have to. We do everything we can to keep our children safe, but sometimes Mother Nature has other plans.

Johnson's Baby has partnered with Save the Children to assist families in times of disaster, through the new Johnson's Baby Cares charitable platform.

In 2012, Johnson's Baby Cares will:

• Donate and distribute thousands of Johnson's Baby "Care Kits", providing families with baby care essentials immediately after a disaster.
• Provide funding that enables Save the Children programming, such as Child Friendly Spaces, which supplies moms and children with safe areas to recover, play and experience the joy of being together as a family following a disaster.

This is such an awesome campaign, and we can all help! Visit Johnson's Baby Cares on Facebook to learn more and to find out how you can donate to this great cause. Johnson's Baby also committed to donate an additional $50,000 to Save the Children when they achieved 500,000 views on their "Happy Mother's Day, Mom -- You're Doing OK" video on YouTube. And guess what? That goal has been met! As of the time of this post, the video had 538,824 views!

Even though the video has already received the required amount of views for the donation, you still have to check it out. You may want to get a tissue handy...

This past Mother's Day really made me reflect on how blessed I am. We had a nice quiet lunch with my mom and celebrated very low-key this year, and it was pure joy just to have my family together. Johnson's Baby Cares wants to ensure all families have joyful moments, regardless of the situation. So when disaster strikes, they will be there to help.

Disclosure: All opinions are my own. I wrote this review while participating in a campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Johnson & Johnson and received a promotional item to thank me for my participation.