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Students Launch Donation Drive to Support Low-Income Children

Emporia, KS (11/12/2019) — Winners of Emporia State University's Community Impact Challenge are launching a donation drive this week to collect hygiene products for students in need in the local school district.

The Community Impact Challenge is a grant competition, sponsored by Community Hornets and the Department of Communication and Theatre, that invites ESU students to identify creative and meaningful solutions to challenges facing the Emporia community. Teams submitted proposals with the finalists invited to present their ideas before a panel of judges. The winning team of the fall 2019 CIC, Hygienic Hornets, consists of students Marisleysis Velazquez, Haylee Weissenbach, and Boone Dodson who received the $500 grant to put their idea to collect hygiene products for low-income children into action.

In Emporia, 29 percent of the population is at the poverty level. According to the USD 253 Food Service, as of 2019 approximately 59 percent of the students are on the free or reduced price lunch program. This is approximately 2,770 students out of the 4,700 students who are in the USD 253 district.

With a high poverty rate, many children in the community may not have the basic resources they need to be successful. Basic needs include hygienic items such as deodorant, body wash, menstrual management products, and more. Lack of these resources results in students not having the motivation to go to school or not focusing in school because they have other things on their mind.

Hygienic Hornets wants to help these students be able to have these resources they need to be successful in school. Hygienic Hornets is hosting a donation drive from Nov. 12 until Jan. 5, 2020.

Items requested include but are not limited to new deodorant, body wash, shampoo, toothbrushes, toothpaste, floss, and menstrual management products. Donate your items at any one of our drop-off locations including Gravel City Roasters, ESB Financial Bank, Country Mart, ESU's Center for Student Involvement in the Memorial Union, the HPER building, and the William Allen White Library.

Once the drive ends, hygienic kits will be made consisting of the items gathered from the donation drive and will be delivered to the schools in the USD 253 district. The projected delivery date for the hygienic kits would be Jan. 15, 2020.

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