Tammie’s Jammies collects nearly 2800 pairs of new pajamas

Tammie Staples (right) and her team distributed 2780 pairs of pajamas this year.
Photo courtesy of “Tammie’s Jammies” Facebook.

By Dan Jones, Northumberland 89.7 News and the Local Journalism Initiative.

“Tammie’s Jammies,” a Northumberland-paced volunteer group has collected and distributed approximately 2800 pairs of news pajamas for either children in foster or social care.

This is the eighth year that Tammie Staples and her amazing team have been giving back to children in care.

Staples said the initiative started after she gave her newly adopted son a new pair of pajamas on Christmas Eve. This was a family tradition for Staples and her family growing up.

Now, the program has expanded from Northumberland County to Belleville and possibly Peterborough in 2025.

“We want to make sure that all kids have the same, and wake up with a brand new pair of jammies and go to bed Christmas Eve with those jammies, knowing that they’re theirs,” she said.

In the first year, the program raised 50 pairs of pajamas, now ballooning to nearly 2800 pairs this year, smashing the 2023 total of approximately 2100.

“Tammies Jammies” works with Children’s Aid Foundations, Children’s Protective Services and the Foster Care Program to get children their new PJ’s. With the expansion to Belleville, the local hospital and other groups have joined the call for the clothing, happily adding to the demand.

Volunteer Jerry Siebarth handles most of the logistics, distribution and storage of pajamas. He said many other volunteers are out collecting the clothing, sorting or raising money for the effort. He emphasised that the focus of all volunteers is to get the pajamas out to children before Christmas.

“It’s a matter of getting that child those pajamas,” he explained. “That’s the whole thing we are doing here. It doesn’t matter where the child is from, it's the matter of getting those children into a new pair of pajamas on Christmas Eve.”