Vision

How can students in the Make a Difference club help to reduce landfill waste and communicable diseases/infections/illness amongst the unhoused population in Kelowna?

Action

The Make a Difference Club (MAD Club) at Studio9 Independent School of the Arts has created fifty individualized Sanitation Packs and will be providing them to unhoused individuals in Kelowna.

The MAD Club, which is made up of students from grades 8 to 12 who volunteer their lunch break time to identify ways to make a positive difference in our community and create projects to give back to others, decided to combine goals of waste reduction/environmental protection with improving sanitation and the quality of life for those who are less economically fortunate.

The students used recycled fabrics and notions, which would otherwise go into the landfill and cause a need for new materials to be produced, to sew fifty reusable bags. The students then collected over 600 hygiene products, including shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, socks, soap, razors, hand sanitizer, toothpaste, toothbrushes, lip balm, feminine hygiene products, tissues, wet wipes, and lotion to put into the reusable bags. The students identified these items as ones that would be the most useful to unhoused individuals, and could help these individuals stay safe from health challenges and some communicable diseases.

The final product was fifty hand-made bags overflowing with each of the products listed above, which were collected by the Unhoused Solidarity Collective Okanangan (USCO) and distributed to those most in need.

Reflection & Celebration

Students felt good about their efforts, and were happy that the message of helping the unhoused was brought to the attention and spread by Castanet News (see link below).
Students understood that it was a large undertaking to make 50 bags (over 600 items were needed to fill the bags).

Links