a better bedtime: pajama program

At our house, there's always a fight over which pajamas the kids want to wear. My son scams for Spiderman, my daughter prefers polka dots. But there are some kids out there who have never had a cozy pair of PJ's to wear to sleep at night. Thankfully, the Pajama Program delivers. The organization, started by Genevieve (Gen) Piturro in 2001, has provided almost 600,000 new pajamas and new books to children in need.

Thousands of children served by Pajama Program live in orphanages, group homes and shelters. In the U.S. foster care system, alone, there are more than 500,000 children. Every two seconds another child enters the system. Many have been abandoned or abused, and have never enjoyed the simple comfort of putting on a cozy pair of pajamas and having a mother or father tuck them in at bedtime and read to them. Teens in the system have often spent most of their childhood without warm sleepwear or the chance to read themselves to sleep. For its 2009-2010 awareness and fundraising campaign, the Pajama Program launches "A Better Bedtime." Says Piturro , "So many of us take this nighttime ritual for granted, yet hundreds of thousands of America’s kids have never experienced these basic comfort. Every child should have the chance to experience A BETTER BEDTIME.”

At the Official Pajama Program A Better Bedtime Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/abetterbedtime — visitors are encouraged to share their favorite bedtime stories (from published or original works) on the group’s Wall and Discussion Boards in the Fan Box, to offer memories of their own childhood bedtime routines, to upload photos of their favorite pair of pajamas, and to share ideas, stories and photos from their own local events that support Pajama Program.

To learn about local chapters of Pajama Program and to participate in events, visit http://www.pajamaprogram.org/chapters.html.