In honor of her upcoming Bat Mitzvah on 1/10/09, Lauren Davis organized a one-mile walk and “family fun day” that was held in September. The event was designed to benefit Keeping Babies Safe, a non-profit organization that Lauren and her family have been involved with since 2005. Lauren’s older sister Eliza started the walk as her Mitzvah Project; Lauren’s was the 2nd annual walk.
The walk, called Walk, Laugh, Smile, Remember Garret, was created in memory of Garret, Lauren’s and Eliza’s baby brother, who passed away due to an unsafe crib. The accident was completely preventable had there been proper information available, the type of information that Keeping Babies Safe works hard to make known. Lauren and her mom Joyce spoke to the crowd of over 500 people about the importance of this organization and its mission. In the past two years, Lauren and her family have helped to raise over $100,000 for KBS and enough money to launch Project Safe Crib. For every $100 they raise, a new crib is purchased for those less fortunate.
Because of the Davis family and their unwavering devotion to this cause, in August 2008, President Bush signed the Consumer Safety Improvement Act of 2008. This Act improves the safety of baby cribs by requiring second-hand cribs to match the same safety requirements as new cribs, prohibiting the resale of unsafe cribs, and prohibiting hotels from using unsafe cribs.
By generating awareness of KBS, the Davis family hopes to help prevent what happened to their son Garret from happening to others. If you would like to learn more about Keeping Babies Safe, please visit Keeping Babies Safe on the Web.