Flooded basement causes Children’s Home Shelter for Family Safety to lose many donations

A burst pipe has left the Children’s Home Shelter for Family Safety scrambling to replace a number of donations that need to be discarded.

It happened early Friday when a pipe in the sprinkler system froze and then broke, causing the shelter’s basement to fill with water.

“That’s where we keep all our storage, all our toy donations — blankets, clothes — everything that gets donated is in the basement,” director of shelter Kate Feilmeier said. “Diapers, strollers, car seats, everything is down there.”

Because the water is considered contaminated, anything that can’t be laundered commercially has to be thrown out.

“Anything that got wet, we had to dispose of,” Feilmeier said. “We had to get rid of diapers, which is unfortunate, a car seat and a lot of toys were impacted.”

People had been donating toys for the kids staying at the shelter this Christmas season.

“Our biggest need to help recover would be toys and then diapers from size four, five, six and then laundry soap because we’re going to be doing a lot of laundry,” Feilmeier said.

High-efficiency liquid detergent and pods would be most helpful, but “we’ll make anything work,” she added.

For toys, games and craft items are “always great and any age,” Feilmeier said. “We’ve got kids zero to 18 here, so any age would be great.”

Toys need to be new. The shelter also accepts gently used clothes and shoes.

Cleanup has started, and “it was all hands on deck this morning,” Feilmeier continued.

“It’ll take a little while get back to normal, and we’re going to try to keep it a normal space for the clients because unfortunately it affected some common areas, so we’re trying to get it cleaned up so they can have some normalcy.”

Making the situation even more challenging — the shelter just saw its highest peak for guests ever about a week ago at 128 people.

“We’re down a little now, thank goodness, but we expect it to go back up,” Feilmeier said.

How to donate

Donations can be dropped off all weekend by calling 605-338-0116 or stopping at the door at 113 N. St. Paul Ave. Drop-off by appointment can be done next week. There’s also an online registry through Target.com to shop for toys and other necessities.

You also can drop off donations in person at The Empire Mall in the Macy’s wing where gift wrapping is being offered as a fundraiser for the nonprofit.

To make a cash donation, click here.

“We just really appreciate the community,” Feilmeier said. “It’s a rough time of year.”