Melisa Darnieder is our newest member, joining the board in February of 2015. She started cloth diapering with her third child in 2013, after learning from a few friends. She quickly became addicted to finding and fixing up well-loved pocket diapers after buying her first few at the fall 2013 Swap. In 2014, Melisa took over repairing donated diapers for Cloth Diaper Connection and has been increasingly involved ever since.
Cloth Diaper Connection has become important to Melisa largely because of the financial impact the program can have on clients. The return on the initial investment of cloth diapers is over tenfold: an initial investment of less than $200 can save a family over $2,000, and then those diapers can be used for additional children. The savings for families with multiple children is staggering. Melisa wants more families to be able to benefit from those savings.
Melisa has worked as an actuary at Nationwide Insurance since 2003 and is currently leading a team of analytics professionals. When she’s not repairing diapers, chasing a toddler, or chauffeuring her older two girls around, she’s knitting, crocheting, and most recently, sewing. She has published a handful of crochet patterns and is working on sewing her first dresses for her girls.