Lincoln County baby shower event offers free family support, resources

Lincoln County’s community-baby-shower model is settling in as a regular part of family support, not a novelty. The fourth annual Lincoln County Community Baby Shower is scheduled for Wednesday, April 29, from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at St. Mary’s Catholic Church Corpus Christi Center, 320 East Washington Street in Tomahawk, and the format is built for easy access: it is free, requires no registration, welcomes children and encourages attendees to bring someone along.

The Lincoln County Health Department and the Lincoln County Parenting Resource Network are again teaming up to put the event together, and this year’s version packs a wide range of services into one room. Aspirus Pediatrics, Aspirus Women’s Health and Aspirus Labor and Delivery are among the participants, along with doula services, CPR and choking demonstrations, car seat checks, childcare guidance, safe sleep education, tobacco and substance-cessation resources, home-safety education, immunization recommendations, mental-health support, WIC, nutrition education, public assistance, housing help, pelvic-floor physical therapy and help with basic needs.

That breadth is the point. Lexi Buntrock, the health department’s public health educator, described the event as a one-stop shop, and Maria Richardson of the Birth to Three program said the format helps parents get information without having to visit each individual business. For Lincoln County families, that matters because the event is designed to collapse several trips, phone calls and office visits into a single stop, with Spanish-language resources and a translator onsite to make the day work for more households.

The county’s care packages add another practical layer. Funded through a grant from the Tomahawk Community Thrift Shop, the packages will include diapers, wipes, a starter toothbrush and educational materials while supplies last. That kind of handout is small compared with the list of services, but it is exactly the sort of immediate help that makes a resource event feel useful instead of ceremonial.

The four-year run tells the larger story. Lincoln County Health Department and the Parenting Resource Network held a Community Baby Shower in Merrill on Oct. 3, 2023, then another in Tomahawk on May 30, 2024, and county materials describe the events as alternating between Merrill and Tomahawk. A 2025 Merrill event was billed as the third annual shower and included more than 15 booths, while an event listing said all 63 families who participated in the last two events felt the experience was worth their time. With that kind of repeat attendance and partner involvement, the baby shower is looking less like a one-off outreach idea and more like local infrastructure for Lincoln County’s newest families.