This October, Project Rise was able to personally thank the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) class at Buchtel CLC for their exceptional work on collecting new and gently used clothing for families struggling with homelessness. The students are a part of Teddy Nantambi Mwonyonyi’s class at Buchtel Middle School. The class consisted of 7th and 8th grade students.

This class has previously worked on other projects pertaining to homelessness, such as creating sleeping mats out of plastic bags. The mats that the students made were donated to the Haven of Rest in Akron. The students are currently working on creating more of these mats to donate later this year.

On October 31st, Amanda Smith (Project Rise Staff Member) and Allie Summers (intern of Project Rise) were able to meet with the students who organized the clothing drive at the school.  Ms. Smith, Special Programming Assistant, was able to share some background information on family homelessness with the class. Ms. Summers attended the collection and helped share information with the class about Project Rise. The clothing was taken to DLM Food and Resource Room located at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church. Project Rise and DLM have worked side by side to provide Project Rise families with much needed resources. DLM is open to the public three times a month.

Altogether, there were approximately 12 boxes of gently used and new clothing, shoes and hats for young children and teens.

Project Rise is a collaborative effort by Akron Public Schools, local shelters and the Akron community to provide supplemental educational services to children and youth experiencing homelessness. For more information on Project Rise and how you can help, please contact Rachel Breece, Special Programs Coordinator, at 330-761-2969 or [email protected]