By Sairanet Hernandez
Dominican students are helping school children who transition out of homelessness by collecting funds to be used in creating simple cookware baskets for their families.
The baskets will contain simple but necessary cooking items for children in need.
Grettel Gomez, sophomore and president of Community Actions network (CAN), started the project. CAN worked behind this event.
“I reached out to Chicago HOPES for Kids to partner with them,” said Gomez. “A lot of what I do is just campaign-building because it is what I want to do in the future.”
Chicago HOPES for Kids is a nonprofit organization located the Chicagoland area that provides shelters with basic needs, extracurricular and educational programs, and family field trips.
The organization wants to help children experiencing the challenges of homelessness.
Chicago Public School (CPS) reported 17,773 homeless students were served during the 2021-22 school year.
The goal of CAN is to pack baskets for at least 35 families at the Primo Sangamon shelter as HOPES will provide gift cards. A packing event will take place on Dec. 1.
CAN has biweekly events where they gather at Cyber Café and ask students for donations. Raffles are included for students to win prizes including gift cards and other CAN merchandise.
Grace Ayena, the vice president of CAN, works on organizing different events and providing support to the fundraiser.
This is the first fundraiser organized by CAN but there were some difficulties while planning.
In an in-person interview, Ayena talked about how it be tough to ask college students for money when many students are struggling financially. However, the turnaround and student body reaction has been positive.
“Knowledge is not for one person to hold for themselves,” said Ayena. “When it comes to doing activism and community work, you just must acknowledge that it is not just one person or aspect that strong arms everything. It takes different aspects because you need the community and organization.”
While CAN is not met their goal, there are more upcoming events for students to participate in.
CAN hopefully plans to have another fundraising event in the River Forest area to fundraise before Dec. 1.
