Even the most experienced educators can miss it. Poverty in the classroom doesn’t always look the way you would expect. The senior in high school sitting in the third row, the fourth chair back. His sweatshirt is filthy; he looks like he hasn’t slept. If you’re not careful, you could assume his appearance Is caused by late night party hours. In reality, he slept in his car last night and his dirty sweatshirt is the same one he wore at his landscaping job after school yesterday.
Two rows over and one chair back sits another young man who looks clean and ready for the day. The teacher doesn’t notice that he has neither pencil nor paper to take notes over the new vocabulary. It is not until he comes up to her desk later, that she realizes what he was missing. But now, because his real backpack was thrown into the trash when the landlord evicted his family yesterday, he has missed out on the first 30 minutes of class. Luckily, he’s bright, the vocab words were not that difficult, and he has a great memory.
Even in the family friendly Midwestern part of the country, statistics show that 42% of the children in Nebraska live in poverty. Have you ever wonder how you can make a difference? Donating clothing and other household items to Purple Heart Charity pick up is one way you can begin to make a difference in the life of a family living in poverty. It’s not the only answer, but donating clothing to charity allows many families the opportunity to meet other living expenses instead of having to constantly purchase clothing.
Did you realize that the average American buys nearly twice as many pieces of clothing as they did 20 years ago? We have become a society where those with money seem to accumulate stuff at an alarming rate. The accumulation itself is bad enough, but it’s often what you do with your things when you are finished with them that can become part of a greater problem, or part of a greater solution. In the year 2006, 2.5 billion pounds of fabric were kept from the landfills by used-clothing purchases. Anytime you decide to donate rather than throw out, you are helping this nation make progress of two fronts. First, you are limiting the waste we generate as a society. Second, your donations of clothing can keep projects like the Purple Heart Charity pick up successful.
It’s sometimes as simple as going through your closet. If you live in a climate with more than one season and you haven’t worn an item in six months, it’s time to let it go. Let your gently used clothing to organizations that have been helping families in need for years. Through Purple Heart Charity pick up and other charity organizations, you can make sure that your used clothing and household items are being put to good use. Maybe even in the classrooms in America.
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