Jeanna Duerscherl | The Roanoke Times

Dayna Palmer reads bedtime stories to her three children, Bryden, 5, Landen, 1, and Hayden, 3. Palmer, along with the help of others, has organized a juice box drive that will help provide families with snacks and juice throughout the summer months.

Juice and Snack Drive

• Runs May 1 through 25.
• Participants can drop off donated juice boxes (100 percent juice only) and healthy snacks at 10 area business locations, all listed at roanoke4kids.com.
• Benefits needy children in summer.
• Donations distributed through Southwestern Virginia Second Harvest Food Bank; go to swvafoodbank.org or call 342-3011, ext. 17 for more information.
• Organizer Dayna Palmer can be reached at roanoke4kids@verizon.net.

"Kids Ask Tough Questions"

A free talk by licensed professional counselor Stacey Lilley will be offered at 6:30 p.m. May 4 and 12. Lilley will follow the talks by hosting a question and answer session. "It will give parents a place to vent," Palmer said. "We can't do that in front of our kids."

The May 4 seminar will be held at Childcare Network, 4225 Brambleton Ave., and child care will be provided; to reserve a spot for child care, e-mail Palmer at roanoke4kids@verizon.net.

The May 12 seminar will be at the Hotel Roanoke; no reservation is necessary. Donations will be accepted and are earmarked for the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund.

Although her own children had never known hunger, Dayna Palmer was familiar with the statistic: One in five children in America goes to bed hungry.

But in Roanoke?

The 35-year-old Penn Forest mother said she cried when she learned that, for some area children, the free meals they receive in school are sometimes their only food of the day.

Among her goals when she launched Roanoke4Kids.com in November was to give the moms who signed up for her social networking site the chance to connect with one another online and in person.

Now, she's reaching out to her network of 400-plus area mothers and enlisting them to help the community. Next month, she wants moms to tuck some extra 100 percent juice boxes and healthy snacks into their grocery cart -- to benefit area kids who rely on free and reduced lunch in the region.

The goal is to collect 46,000 juice boxes, enough to feed the 2,000 children served by the Southwestern Virginia Second Harvest Food Bank for a month. "The need in the summer rises dramatically when the kids aren't in school" and aren't receiving school meals, Palmer said.

"When I heard about the needs these kids have -- there are times when some don't get fed at home at all -- I sat there and cried," she added. "My three children have an entire cupboard full of healthy snacks."

Becki Wildenberger, programs manager for Second Harvest, said the organization is "desperate for what Dayna's doing." Supplying juice boxes for 2,000 kids for just one month costs the organization more than $9,000.

"Hunger is something people don't want to face in their own back yard," Wildenberger added. "It's a lot easier to give money overseas ... when most of America is just two paychecks away from having to go on assistance."

In Roanoke, the number of children receiving free and reduced-price lunch programs increased in 27 of 29 schools from 1990 to 2005. And many Roanokers who qualify for food stamps don't apply for them, according to Wildenberger, who says they're embarrassed, or they're unaware they qualify, or they don't know how.

Families who want to donate to Palmer's 100 percent juice and snack drive can go to her Web site for a list of locations and requested snacks. All drop-off spots are child-oriented businesses that pay a fee to advertise on her site.

Resource for moms

Moms register free for the site -- and get access to children's event calendars and message board topics ranging from how to buy/sell used baby clothes to baby sitter services. Members can also trade recipes and get tips for the best places to go for a date night. Palmer holds regular gatherings of moms and kids at places ranging from Pump It Up to McDonald's play zones.

Businesses pay $350 a year to join; nonprofits pay $250. Both get exposure to potential customers who are middle and upper-middle income, generally in their 30s and with more than one child, she said.

Palmer plans to organize quarterly events to help area charities. In December, members donated 300 toys for Toys for Tots through the site, which she initially began as a way for isolated new moms and newcomers to the area to get to know one another.

In the aftermath of the shooting rampage at Virginia Tech last week, Palmer's 5-year-old daughter was full of questions including this one:

"Is somebody going to come to my school and shoot me?"

Because of that, Palmer has planned a couple of forums where parents can learn how to communicate with their children about the tragedy.

"Since my daughter's been born, she's had to hear about 9/11, the war in Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, the tsunami, the D.C. sniper shootings and now this," Palmer said.

"She's only 5, and she's seen so much tragedy already. If we're not careful, we're going to produce kids who are either paranoid or jaded."

A passion, not a living

Palmer's eldest was 15 months old when she and her lawyer-husband, Jim, moved to Roanoke from Northern Virginia.

"At the time the only people we knew literally were the people whose house we bought and my husband's boss."

A swimming instructor and coach for 20 years, the first friends she made were mothers of children she taught at the Carter Athletic Center and, more recently, the Roanoke Athletic Club.

The Canadian-born entrepreneur still teaches swimming part time at the RAC and devotes evenings and nap times to the site. Her brother, who lives in Calgary, Alberta, does her Web design work, and the two communicate via instant messages daily. With no advertising budget, she's spread the word by posting some 60 signs across the Roanoke Valley, speaking at various women's groups and business meetings, and plastering the address of her Web site on the windows of her own Jeep.

"I get people who stop me when they see my car and ask me where to send their 3-year-old to summer school," she laughed. "I'm more connected to this community than people who've lived here all their lives."

Mothers of her generation prefer to shop, connect and gather information online, said Palmer, who plans to launch a site for women in August called roanoke4women.com.

"They want a resource to connect to businesses and each other in a time frame that works for them."

Her goal, she says, is for the business to pay for itself. "This has become my passion, not a living," she said, adding that she turns down non-child-friendly businesses that ask to advertise. She refuses to pitch her services to corporate underwriters, too, she said, "because I don't want to hurt the integrity of what I'm doing" -- including her ability to raise goods and money for area charities.

"It's too easy to say you don't know about the needs out there, but once you are given that information, I'm a firm believer that you're accountable for it," she said.