PABLO — The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes Early Childhood Services hosted their annual Baby Fair on Saturday at Salish Kootenai College, bringing together over 60 community partners to provide resources for families.
Parents packed the college gym on Saturday to access a wide range of services, from health care to educational support, all designed to guide families through every stage of parenthood.
"We learned about a lot of resources in our community, and there's also just a ton of free stuff, so it's a really fun day," Sarah Bigsam said.
The event created a one-stop shop for families on the Flathead reservation, eliminating the need to visit multiple businesses throughout the community.
Check out what was offered at the annual event:
"You can hear a lot of things offered in your community without having to go to these businesses; you can get it all in one day," Bigsam said.
MTN found parents could access a wide range of resources at the fair, from health services to educational support, all designed to help guide them through every stage of parenthood.
"We just want to provide the knowledge for those families and new mommas to be successful," said Liz Camel with CSKT Early Childhood Services.
The event featured hospitals, breastfeeding support, tribal health services, and dentistry resources as part of the comprehensive Head Start program that provides outreach to support caregivers throughout the reservation.
"We have our hospitals here, we have breastfeeding, we have tribal health here, we have dentistry, just a huge amount of resources," Camel told MTN.
The resources are part of CSKT Early Childhood Services, a Head Start program that provides outreach to support caregivers throughout the Flathead Reservation.
Camel said the event has grown significantly over the years, serving children from newborns to five years old.
"We've increased with the amount of families that have showed up and last year we had a count of about 700 and it [looks] well over that right now," Camel said.
The program and local partners coordinate the event together, sending families home with prizes donated by participating programs and community members.
"Our program donates a lot of wonderful prizes, and then each of our partners at each table also donate prizes for the families and we also ask the community and they donate prizes," Camel said.
For families like the Bigsams, the Early Childhood Services program creates a support network that extends beyond the classroom.
"Headstart is not only supportive of kids, but the whole family and I think that is what this day is about, it's not just for new mommas, new daddies with new babies, but just encompass the whole community," Bigsam said.
The event demonstrates how tribal early childhood services work to provide comprehensive family support throughout the Flathead reservation community in Pablo.
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