Suzanne Wicker sees herself as part of a team of moms.

With that in mind, she set up a website where busy mothers could get information about children’s activities as well as buy and sell gear their kids had outgrown, and called it Team Mom Maple Valley.

Wicker first moved to the Seattle area from Hawaii, where she had grown up and lived for years, in 1998 in search of a change.

“I had a great job, I was a PR manager for a five star resort,” Wicker said. “I loved Hawaii, never thought I would leave.”

But after 24 years on Oahu, she came to Washington state, and after a year she decided she would stay.

She had landed a job in Snoqualmie as a public relations and marketing manager for Salish Lodge. When she began looking for a house, Wicker recalled, it made sense to move to Maple Valley since it was a quick drive on state Route 18 to her job.

Six months later, she met her husband, “and we’ve been here ever since.”

Maple Valley has changed significantly since she first arrived. And so has her life.

In addition to getting married, Wicker and her husband decided to have a child, and now have a 6-year-old son in addition to her stepdaughter who just graduated from high school.

Wicker now works part time for a church in Issaquah which allows her to spend time with her son who will be attending school full time in the fall.

Add to that circumstance a few other factors, Wicker said, and in April the website was inspired because “it was the perfect storm of situations. I was on vacation in Hawaii and I was reading this book about stepping out and not letting fear stop you from doing something you’re passionate about. At the same time I knew my son would be in school full time in the fall and I have a daughter who will be starting college in fall.”

And in the spring, she was talking with her friends about deadlines for fall sports for kids, and Wicker discovered a general consensus of concern about missing the window of opportunity to register their youngsters for classes, leagues, and other activities that wouldn’t happen for several months.

But, the deadlines were looming.

“So, I thought it would be nice if there was one place for moms to find out those deadlines,” Wicker said. “I had never done a website before, so, the first thing I did was research.”

She looked for a model or a template she could use to build the website on. Wicker found one after a couple of weeks of searching that seemed to fit her purpose.

“I spent three long weeks, long nights, learning how to do it, then started gathering the information,” she said. “Then I sent it to my friends and said, what do you think? Does this meet a need?”

Indeed it did and the feedback has come not just from her friends, but, in emails from people she doesn’t know after the site launched.

Everything on the website is offered free of charge.

The focus of the site, Wicker said, is “moms equipping moms.”

First, equipping them literally with gear.

“My son is 6 and I can’t tell you how many cleats, baseball gloves, bats, that he’s outgrown… and they’re hardly used,” Wicker said.

Getting sports gear for kids can be expensive, especially buying new, and Wicker said she wants to provide families — especially those with several children playing sports — the opportunity to get great, gently used items without having to pay full price.

At the same time, it allows other families to make room in the garage.

The other aspect of the site is an information clearinghouse of sorts for parents.

“I’m trying to include everything in Maple Valley,” Wicker said. “There’s links to the community center, parks and recreation, any of the major (youth) leagues as well as church vacation bible schools.”

Wicker set the site up as a blog so it’s a straightforward and easy to digest format for users. Other moms can post items up, though Wicker will need to approve it first, to make sure anything that she may not be aware about is up on the site.

This can also help moms as they transition their youngsters out of play groups for pre-schoolers into activities for grade school age children.

“In my neighborhood, I’ve found they’ve been very involved with mom groups,” Wicker said. “But, once they finish preschool, they find they’re on their own. I’m hoping this site will meet a need for moms. Now they’re entering a new chapter with their children and all the possible activities they can get involved in.”

Check out the website at www.teammommaplevalley.com.