At graduation this year, my principal told a story of one of our graduating seniors. His dad left the family suddenly, leaving his unemployed mom to care for a family of 4 kids. They lost their housing and found themselves suddenly homeless. Our student lived behind a strip mall for almost a year, camping overnight in a sleeping bag and a tent. Unfortunately, this is not an aberration here. Salt Lake City has a large homeless population and inadequate housing support. Accordingly, we have many tent cities housing families with children. It's heartbreaking to watch our families huddle under blankets and sleeping bags in the bitter winter cold. Knowing this is happening in your city is difficult, knowing it's happening to your students is impossible.
A student cannot focus on my accounting lesson if they are worried about feeding their little sister or staying warm in the middle of a cold Utah winter.
These students are very real. I see their faces, hear their stories, and dry their tears. This project is for our homeless kids.
My Project
Over 120 students at my school are classified as homeless by federal standards. In many cases entire families are outside. As a parent, I can see myself pitching this to my kids as an "adventure" during the summer, but during the winter? How can you sell that to your family. The reality is they can't.
I've see families do whatever they have to do to survive.
I teach business classes, specifically accounting, business law, personal finance. Imagine being a student in my finance class listening to my lecture on investing your 401(k) knowing all the while that you are going "home" to a tent.
Every year Utah residents are asked to donate tents and sleeping bags to our homeless "cities." This became so much more real when we discovered that several of our students were residents of these pop-up cities. They were literally freezing to death outside.
This project is designed to provide students with sleeping bags and tents on a "no questions asked" basis. We maintain a food pantry and "life necessities" area where students can fill a backpack with whatever they and their families need. This project will provide them with shelter and warmth.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Ms. Stewart and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
