FW Lions Club member honored for helping babies | Hometown Hero

Published 1:30 pm Friday, May 29, 2026

The Federal Way Lions Club received a prestigious Kindness Matters Service Award for its Sleepers for Newborns project led by member Barbara Fey.

The Kindness Matters Service Award is given annually to Lions and Leo clubs for performing an outstanding service project in one of Lions International’s global cause areas, which include childhood cancer, diabetes, disaster relief, environment, humanitarian, hunger, vision and youth.

Lions International is the largest membership-based service club organization in the world, with 1.4 million members in 50,000 clubs.

This year, on May 19, the Federal Way Lions Club was one of only 32 clubs around the world to receive this award.

The Sleepers for Newborns project began in 2023, and in that time, 11 people have volunteered more than 431 hours to help over 1,350 mothers and families in the Federal Way area. The club has donated more than 700 sets of sleepers, diapers and flannel blankets to St. Francis Hospital and an additional 72 cases of diapers plus blankets, burp cloths and clothing to Care Net of Puget Sound, according to a press release.

For her work to make sure children of Federal Way experience warmth and community care as their first experience of the world through her hand sewn receiving blankets and donated sleeper sets and diapers, Lions Club member Barbara Fey is the Mirror’s Hometown Hero for the month of May.

Fey told the Mirror that she got the idea from another Lions club in Vancouver, Washington. When the Federal Way chapter was looking for a project, she came up with the idea. She then learned from the volunteer coordinator at St. Francis Hospital that some moms don’t even own a single sleeper for their baby when they deliver.

This gave Fey the idea to create care packages including a handmade receiving blanket, a sleeper and six diapers to get new parents started.

Fey has personally sewn 657 receiving blankets for St. Francis and 50 for Care Net herself, as well as 25 sleepers.

Fey first learned to sew when she was 9 years old, after learning from her mother, who was trained as a tailor in Germany, where she was born.

The first things she learned to sew were doll clothes, then by age 12, she was making clothes for herself as well.

Her sewing has ebbed and flowed over the years, and she didn’t have much time for it while working as a property manager and in real estate for the majority of her career. After an earlier-than-planned retirement made her need a bit of extra money to supplement her Social Security, she began working at craft and fabric stores.

“I’ve always been passionate about doing things for children,” Fey said.

“They have no control over their lives…they depend on adults,” whereas adults typically have at least some choice in how they deal with the challenges they are dealt or play a role in the mistakes they make, she said.

In her view, “if there are children that need help, a good community member will do what they can to help a child.”

She has found the Lions Club to be a “good outlet for that” and is currently the secretary and service chair as well as the chair of the Sleepers for Newborns project. She has been a member of a Lions Club since 2016, beginning with a club in Vancouver, Washington.

The Federal Way club does a variety of service activities for the community including fundraising and awarding annual scholarships, a dictionary donation drive, a Fishing Derby for children with special needs in partnership with other local groups, and much more.

“Our club is honored to receive the Kindness Matters Service Award, but we are more honored to continue to serve our community and those in need,” Erik Scott, president for the Federal Way Lions Club, said in a press release. “We received this award primarily due to the compassion, leadership, and persistence of Lion Barbara Fey as she strives to ensure every child has a good start in life.”

To celebrate the achievement, local Lions officials attended, including International Director A.D. Don Shove, Zone Chair of N-4 Leanne Guier, District 19 Council Chair Steve Brooks, 19N District Governor Donna Murr and representative of donation recipient Care Net Farnoush Katouzian.

At Care Net, Katouzian said they use donations from the Lions Club in multiple ways to support expecting families and new parents.

The blankets are very popular, Katouzian said, because of “the creativity behind it. They’re colorful, they’re fun, they’re unique, they go with anything.”

They rely on the blankets, burp cloths, sleepers and other donations that the club donates, Katouzian said.

“I can’t say enough how appreciative I am of what Barbara does…and all the work she does behind the scenes,” Erik Scott said at the award event.

Federal Way Lions Club member Jan Barber noted at the event that the award is especially significant because “we’re not the biggest club in WA state.” The Federal Way Lions Club has 29 members and meets on the first and third Tuesdays of each month at noon at the Red Lobster restaurant in Federal Way.

For more information or to get involved with the Federal Way Lions Club, contact Bob Darrigan at federalwaylionsclub@gmail.com or visit www.facebook.com/federalwaylionsclub.