Every year, my chapter does a community service project for the holiday season through our Stand UP Cause. Our cause this year was poverty in our communities. In Memphis, the percentage of people in poverty is 27.8% and 44.9% of those people are children under eighteen years old. We acknowledged this problem, sought ways we to help, and found a community to support in Frayser, Tennessee. At Frayser Corning Achievement School, 18 students in a pre-kindergarten class were missing school simply because they didn’t own a warm coat. So, we adopted the classroom.

We were able to get a warm coat with an attached hood, a pair of mittens, long sleeve pajamas, a book, and a Kroger gift card for each kid. The teacher also had a wish list of items she wanted to enhance the kids’ classroom experience, and we fulfilled that as well. The list included art supplies, toys to promote literacy, cardboard blocks, magnetic blocks, classroom supplies, books, and toys to promote imaginative play. This was possible because of donations collected from my chapter, Kriger BBG, and our brother chapter, Okeon AZA. Once we had the money, we all went shopping together to buy the items. Then, we had a program where we wrapped everything so we can give them as presents to the kids and the teacher.

We’d like to give a huge thank you to Lee Ernst of Menage Stationery for her $100 donation, as well as to Sheldon Rosengarten of Marx-Bendsdorf Realtors for his $500 donation - Kriger and Okeon greatly appreciate your generosity and help in making our vision for the class a reality. I had so much fun participating in this project. It was so gratifying to see our efforts to make a positive impact in our community, and I hope that it continues to last.