Sister Beth Daddio talks modestly about her role in helping homeless children in Las Cruces.
“I was called to this lifestyle,” she said. “I continue to choose it, to help those in need, especially children. Every day, I wake up with this desire to just do that. It’s just become a part of who I am. I’ve been answering this call for 65 years.”
Sister Beth, who will turn 85 laster this year, is one of the founders of Jardin de los Niños, a childcare and education center for homeless and near homeless children and families designed to provide a caring environment to help these vulnerable kids develop resiliency skills.
Sister Beth also helped to found Tutti Bambini, a children’s store that provides funding through in-house sales and fundraising to local organizations that support at-risk youth. Sister Beth still works there.
Sister Beth and the late Sister Anna Waldschmitt started Jardin de los Niños at Peace Lutheran Church in 1995.
“Sister Anna and I knew it was needed,” Sister Beth said.
Sister Beth felt called to enter the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration convent in Colorado Springs after graduating from high school in Albuquerque. She then transferred to her present community, the Sisters for Christian Community, where she has been a member for more than 40 years.
A native of Maryland, Sister Beth came to Las Cruces in 1993 “to live and be involved in ministry in southern New Mexico,” she said.
Jardin de los Niños moved to the Mesilla Valley Community of Hope campus in 2001 and has a five-star rating. The school recently announced plans to expand its service area to Hatch.
As Jardin de los Niños began to flourish, Sister Beth said she realized the community needed a store for children.
When a building adjacent to La Tienda de Jardin (Jardin de los Niños’ used clothing store for men and women) became vacant in 2013, Sister Beth leased the building, bought second-hand shelves and counters from a sporting goods store that had closed, found a welder to customize the hardware for the new space and became the first manager of Tutti Bambini, a nonprofit that sells gently used children’s clothing, stuffed animals and toys, books, furniture and more, at 300 El Molina Blvd.
Tutti Bambini works with 31 nonprofit agencies to help families with young children, regardless of their ability to pay. Everyone who comes into the store is treated with the same kindness and respect, whether they have cash in hand or a voucher from a local agency, said Sister Beth.
In addition to a small paid staff, Tutti Bambini has 24 volunteers “who are very committed,” she said. But, the store could always use more volunteers.
She said Tutti Bambini try to help women who are raising small children and need more support.
“It’s very much a part of me,” she said. It’s the passion, the driving force to leave this a better world than I found it. I do anything I can to help children’s lives be better.
