Share Our Spare

Share Our Spare Share Our Spare has a mission is to ensure every child in Chicago has the essentials they need to thrive in the first five years of life.
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We collect your "extras" and turn them into the EXTRAordinary for families in need.

06/12/2026

As we get further into June, we’re celebrating fathers and father figures everywhere! We know firsthand how important that role is for a young child’s development. And it can be pretty fun, too! Whip from The Morning Mix describes the unexpected small victories that can come with changing diapers — making the occasional (or frequent) mess worth it!

We are also so excited about our upcoming diaper drive with The Mix and Huggies, which happens to be the day before Father’s Day! Join us on Saturday, June 20th from 9am-4pm at Walmart Supercenter in Glen Ellyn, where we’ll be collecting diapers, eating ice cream, and hanging with the Morning Mix crew!

Huggies will even match in-person donations up to 250,000 diapers!

Can’t make it in person? Donate at the link in our bio!

Each month the essentials we provide to our partners help support the health and development of ~35,000 Chicago area chi...
06/11/2026

Each month the essentials we provide to our partners help support the health and development of ~35,000 Chicago area children ages 0-5. As a result, we help lay the foundation for a resilient and equitable community.
Want to get involved? Check out links in our bio for volunteering and other opportunities to engage!

Today, we’re featuring an extra special partnership between Share Our Spare and , a rehab doll project created by Maggie...
06/10/2026

Today, we’re featuring an extra special partnership between Share Our Spare and , a rehab doll project created by Maggie McCurry.

Maggie supplies Share Our Spare with incredible secondhand dolls that she lovingly cleans, re-hairs, styles, sews outfits for, and accessorizes to create beautiful dolls with stories to tell for children across our community. And now Share Our Spare's well-loved donated dolls and accessories get a new life through Maggie.

A rising junior at Illinois Wesleyan University majoring in Theater Tech and Design, Maggie started Found a Friend while still in high school as a way to combine her love of dolls, sustainability, and helping others. She often uses fabric scraps from the costume shop where she works on university productions like Pride and Prejudice and Frog and Toad, while hunting through thrift stores for the perfect doll shoes, purses, and accessories.

Her biggest inspirations are her mother, Miggie — a social worker by trade — and her costume design professor, Zandra Siple. Found a Friend is truly a family effort: Miggie helps with outreach and sourcing dolls for rehab, while Maggie’s sister Nora supports social media and even created the song “Found a Friend,” which inspired the project’s name.

Maggie exemplifies what it means to turn personal passion into meaningful community impact. Every batch of dolls she donates is incredibly popular with our partners and their families — often finding loving homes in less than 24 hours.

Because every doll deserves another life — and every child deserves a beautiful doll.

Let there be light! 💡What do you do when the lights go out and your ceilings are 30 feet high? You call friends who know...
06/03/2026

Let there be light! 💡

What do you do when the lights go out and your ceilings are 30 feet high? You call friends who know who to call!

A huge thank-you to for connecting us with an electrician when we needed one most.

Blade Electric & Technologies answered the call, generously donating both the lighting fixtures and the labor to get everything shining bright again. Thanks to their support, our volunteers, partners, and staff can clearly see all the incredible donations that help us serve our littlest neighbors every day.

We’re grateful for partners who step up and make a difference!

We know it’s just starting to feel like summer, but here at we’re already preparing for another frigid Chicago winter....
06/01/2026

We know it’s just starting to feel like summer, but here at we’re already preparing for another frigid Chicago winter. Help us get ready by hosting a drive collecting winter coats and accessories! Collecting now will help us provide enough winter gear for our partners and the families they serve when the time comes.

You can host this drive amongst family, friends, colleagues, summer camps, etc. There are virtual options as well!

Please email [email protected] or call us at (773) 657-3117 to get started!

We’re proud to partner with ’s Unintentional Injury Prevention Programs at the Patrick M. Magoon Institute for Healthy C...
05/29/2026

We’re proud to partner with ’s Unintentional Injury Prevention Programs at the Patrick M. Magoon Institute for Healthy Communities to help ensure children and families in the most impacted communities have access to safe sleep resources.

Through this partnership, supports Lurie’s safe sleep education and outreach efforts by procuring essential items, assembling & delivering kits to community-based access points and ambassadors — helping remove barriers for families and extend the impact of this critical work.

This work is especially urgent in Chicago, where Black infants are 14 times more likely to die from sleep-related causes compared to their white counterparts. In Cook County, Latino infants also face a risk 2.5 times higher than the national average, underscoring the importance of expanding access to education, prevention, and safe sleep resources.

We’re proud to play a supporting role through our auxiliary programs, helping partners like Lurie maximize existing funding by leveraging our vendor relationships and warehouse operations to turn resources into as many direct supports for families as possible 💚

Read more about Lurie’s program at https://www.luriechildrens.org/en/news-stories/improving-sleep-safety-through-education-and-trust/

💚✨Congratulations to our Volunteer of the Month, Helen Gabrail!✨💚Helen is a Northside Learning Center Special Education ...
05/28/2026

💚✨Congratulations to our Volunteer of the Month, Helen Gabrail!✨💚

Helen is a Northside Learning Center Special Education Teacher who has been working there for 8 years, but she has been with Chicago Public Schools for 30 years!

During the 2025–2026 school year, Helen has generously dedicated 2 hours every Thursday supporting Northside Learning Center’s students while volunteering at Share Our Spare.

📚🧸🍼 Helen loves working with toys, books, formula, and baby clothes here at Share Our Spare.

✨In her spare time, Helen enjoys organizing, cleaning, babysitting, and volunteering at Cradles to Crayons Chicago.

Thank you, Helen, for your heart, dedication, and the incredible impact you make for children and families in our community every week! 💚

05/27/2026

From donation drop-off ➡️ volunteer sorting ➡️ partner shopping 🧸💚

A quick look at how essential items move through the Sharehouse and into the hands of families who need them most.

6 big orders. 20,000+ diapers. 330 families supported.We were proud to host Charles Schwab for a hands-on volunteer sess...
05/21/2026

6 big orders. 20,000+ diapers. 330 families supported.

We were proud to host Charles Schwab for a hands-on volunteer session at the Sharehouse. Together, this incredible team packed essential diaper orders that will be distributed through our network of partner agencies—helping ensure Chicago’s youngest children have what they need to thrive.

Because when the community shows up, real impact happens. 💚

Buckle up those car seats—this is a long (and very deserved) shoutout 💚Volunteer Appreciation Night 2026 was all about c...
05/19/2026

Buckle up those car seats—this is a long (and very deserved) shoutout 💚

Volunteer Appreciation Night 2026 was all about celebrating the incredible humans who show up day after day to make the magic happen at Share Our Spare. From raffles and games to Sweet Baby Ray’s and lots of laughter, Friday, April 24th was a small thank you for a very big impact.

Our volunteers are the reason our partners have a consistent supply of essentials—and why families across Chicago receive high-quality items for their little ones with dignity and care.

✨ Ted, the master of “Tedification™️,” keeping everything organized and partner-focused
✨ Stephanie, packing Family Connects orders with so much heart
✨ Sumaya, our toy maven, sorting and quality-checking thousands of toys
✨ Nailiah & Salimah, all-around superheroes (and Nailiah—the creativity behind our kindness cards!)
✨ Cindy, working her magic on books, clothing, and sustainability—keeping plastic out of landfills
✨ Grace, a gear expert ensuring safety, quality, and connection with donors
✨ Helen & Asogban, bringing energy, joy, and leadership with Northside Learning Center students each week
✨ And Queen Julie 👑 — 7 years, 2,500+ hours, and a legacy of dedication that has shaped so much of what we do.

We truly couldn’t do this without you—and honestly, we wouldn’t want to.

Thank you for being the village. Thank you for showing up for our community’s littlest neighbors. You are the real MVPs.

Address

3800 N Milwaukee Avenue
Chicago, IL
60641

Opening Hours

Monday 9:30am - 4pm
Tuesday 10am - 4:30pm
Wednesday 9:30am - 4pm
Thursday 9:30am - 5pm

Telephone

+17736573117

Website

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