Mother's Day gift benefits Spring House
Brendan Dibble, 16, helps raise funds for Monmouth County moms
BY DANIEL HOWLEY Staff Writer

EATONTOWN - Every year when Mother's Day approaches, children and husbands rush to stores to buy a variety of gifts ranging from cards to flowers to candy.

This year, a 16-year-old from Manasquan is asking the community to take a more untraditional approach and help less fortunate mothers this Mother's Day by making a donation.

Brendan Dibble, a sophomore at the Christian Brother's Academy (CBA) in Lincroft, created a program for people to make donations to the Eatontown-based Spring House transitional home for homeless mothers located on South Street.

The Spring House, owned and operated by the nonprofit Homing Corp., is a transitional home that operates as a temporary home for young homeless mothers throughout Monmouth County.

Women live at the Spring House for up to a year, and during that time they are enrolled in job-skill training classes.

Setting up a fundraiser to raise money for the mothers at the Spring House was not Dibble's first intention.

"Originally, I was going to [the Spring House] to do office work and complete community service requirements for CBA," Dibble said.

Students at CBA are required to participate in a set amount of community service hours in order to progress to the next grade, Dibble explained.

"Freshman year you have to complete 10 hours," he said. "Sophomore and junior years you have to do 15 hours and senior year it's 10 hours."

It was while filing paperwork at the Spring House for his community service that Dibble decided he wanted to do something more fulfilling.

"I realized I could do something more," Dibble said.

Dibble decided last spring that he would raise funds by asking people to make donations to the home as Mother's Day gifts.

Dibble explained that a donation is made to the Spring House in the name of somebody's mother.

Dibble then handwrites a card with a personal message from the donor to their mother letting them know that a donation has been made in their name.

"We get the blank cards sent to my house and then whatever people want to have written, [I write the message] and then have them sent out," Dibble said.

Dibble's mother, Kathy Dibble, said, "It's a great thing. He went there first to file and do paperwork and then came up with this.

"It's something more beneficial to Spring House and it's something that he can continue [throughout high school]. I think it's great," she said.

Dibble's mother said that her son runs and organizes the fundraising efforts all by himself.

"The only thing that me and my husband will do is ask people if they would like to [make a donation]," Kathy Dibble said.

"He orders the cards, writes them and mails them. There are only so many hours of community service students have to complete and obviously this goes way over the amount needed for sophomores," she said.

Despite the praise he receives for his volunteer work, Dibble remains humble about the fundraising efforts.

"I'm just trying to do something nice for the community and the women of Spring House," Dibble said.

Dibble explained that he began his program last year, but was not as successful as he had hoped to be.

"Last year I raised between $1,500 and $2,000 for Spring House," Dibble said. "This year it should hopefully turn out to be better."

According to Spring House Executive Director Eileen Higgins, the Spring House was able to purchase approximately six weeks of food for the 19 residents of Spring House last year due to the money raised through the Mother's Day fundraiser.

"It goes a long way," Higgins said. "There are nine women and 11 children at Spring House.

"I think he did a great job last year," Higgins said. "Fundraising isn't easy."

She continued, "This year's donations will benefit the mother's on a daily basis. They will help us to buy diapers, provide counseling and maintain the home so that the residents can live here and get the skills that they need."

Dibble said, "My goal is to continue this every year and make more money than the previous year."

Those interested in making a Mother's Day donation to Spring House can contact Brendan Dibble at (732) 223- 1744 or e-mail him at bredanj.dibble@yahoo.com, or Eileen Higgins at Spring House at (732) 389- 6090.

There is a $10 minimum for donations.