After Lisa Wood had her first baby, she realized she didn’t know too many mothers who also had children. To find opportunities to connect with other mothers, Wood joined the Sunnyvale chapter of the MOMS Club, also known as Moms Offering Moms Support. In the last six-and-a-half years since Wood has been part of the MOMS organization, Wood and both her children have made many new friends.
“[Another mother’s] son and my son have been playing together since age two,” Wood says. “Now they’re both nine and are still great friends and go to the same school together.”
Wood and some other mothers from the MOMS Club of Sunnyvale decided to branch out and launch a new chapter here in Santa Clara. The activities for children the MOMS Club of Santa Clara offers include weekly play groups at parks or people’s houses, field trips to museums and zoos, get-togethers at kid-friendly restaurants, and holiday parties.
“Children have like-aged playgroups and the opportunities to interact with a range of children,” says Jennifer Yang, co-founder of MOMS Club of Santa Clara. “The children’s ages range from being infants to young school-aged children.”
Yang shares that members of the MOMS Club, many of whom are stay-at-home mothers, also benefit from participation in the organization.
“Mothers benefit from the MOMS Club by gaining personal friendships and building a support network,” Yang says. “You know there are other people going through the same challenges you are facing as mothers, and you can reach out to those people for companionship.”
Dasha, another co-founder of MOMS Club of Santa Clara, enjoys the comradery shared among the mothers and watching the children grow up together.
“Older kids take on the responsibility of watching the younger kids,” Dasha says. “Also, kids who don’t have siblings get to be with other kids.”
The opportunity to give back to the community is another perk that comes with being in the MOMS Club of Santa Clara. In early March, the mothers hosted a clothing swap and sale. Money raised from this event went to the Second Harvest Food Bank. On a Friday afternoon, a group of mothers congregated at Yang’s house to set up for a garage sale while their children played with each other. The garage sale is another community service project- its proceeds will benefit another organization serving those in need.
“We do several fundraisers through the year,” Wood says. “We do two garage sales a year. We do backpack drives for the schools at the end of summer and we do toy drives near Christmas. Giving back is part of the ideals of the MOMS Club. We help other mothers and children in our community.”
MOMS Club is a non-profit membership organization with chapters all over the world. Members of the MOMS Club are stay-at-home mothers, mothers who work outside the home part-time, or mothers who run home-based businesses. Members of the MOMS Club of Santa Clara must live in Santa Clara or within the boundaries of the city’s school district. An annual membership fee of $35 pays for general administrative costs. During each year of membership, each member is encouraged to host about six events.
For more information about MOMS Club of Santa Clara, visit www.bigtent.com/groups/scmoms or email momsclubofsantaclara@gmail.com.