Photo provided This senior project coordinated with Centerstone was conducted for the benefit of homeless individuals and clients from the center, providingdonations of items such as shoes, clothes, blankets, toothbrushes, toothpaste, and toys. These were then offered up at a giveaway day on Dec. 20.
A local student is working to provide necessities to individuals in need, including those dealing with homelessness or mental health.
Kaylee Hughes is a student in the Columbus Virtual Pathway program, with Columbus East as her home school.
For her senior project, she is organizing donation drives with Centerstone for the benefit of homeless individuals and clients from the center, which provides a variety of counseling and medical services.
For her first drive, Hughes collected and organized donations of items such as shoes, clothes, blankets, toothbrushes, toothpaste, and toys. These were then offered up at a giveaway day on Dec. 20.
“It was actually pretty amazing,” said Hughes. “It was 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and it ended up being all gone around 8:15. And we had over 70 blankets, and there were over thousands of shares on Facebook, from what I can tell. And mainly, my whole goal for this senior project is just being able to help the community and being able to help those in need.”
She plans to hold additional drives in January and February. The former will be a food drive, and they’re still figuring out what to collect for the latter. Hughes thinks it may be more clothes and essential items, such as those related to hygiene.
In addition to organizing the donation drives, Hughes’ project has also included learning more about homelessness and mental health from her mother, who works at Centerstone, and her project mentor, Courtney Naderman.
Hughes’ favorite part of the project so far, has been watching people come in and get the items they need.
“Having that all completely just go away to people that need it, that actually made me cry, because it just makes me realize that people are just so grateful for anything,” she said.
