Three Revere clubs collaborated to collect household items to give to homeless LGBTQ teens in Akron and its surrounding areas.

Spectrum, Teen Institute, and Project Love all collaborated to start a “Project Pack It Up” campaign for the first time this year. Planning started in March with the help of Revere teachers and staff including Rebecca Ray, Kathy Harris, Susan Sanders, and Bonnie Simonelli.

Through this event, held from April 9 through 20, these clubs collected items for homeless LGBTQ teens. They collected items including toiletries like toothbrushes and deodorant, school supplies like notebooks and pencils, and even phone chargers. Project Pack It Up collected seven hundred items and they were packed into almost fifty donated backpacks.

Senior CJ Franklin sat during A through D lunch for two weeks collecting these items. Franklin is an active member and she explained why this project means so much to her.

“These are kids who are kicked out of their houses who are our age, and they show up to shelters with nothing but the clothes on their backs… and I think it is important to give back to those who don’t have as much as we have,” Franklin said.

Along with collecting these items, she handed out raffle tickets for each item a student turned in. One bookbag equated to five raffle tickets and for the rest of the items every person received one ticket. At the end of this event, and once the teens received their filled backpacks, the raffle took place and ten winners received gift cards to a local restaurant or store. The raffle took place on Friday, April 27. Franklin commented on the level of respect she earned for people when passing out raffle tickets.

“We gave out over 700 tickets, but some people didn’t want them. There’s a lot of bad in this world but things like this help you find the flowers in a field of weeds,” Franklin said.

As well as Franklin, senior Taylor Fee, another member of Spectrum, had been collecting items and helping with the planning of this event and explains what she has gained from it.

“ [I gained] knowing that someone’s day is going to be made when they receive one of these backpacks,” Fee said.

Sophomore Ana Hair, another member of Spectrum, also explained how thankful she felt for everyone who helped out including all members of Spectrum, TI, and Project Love.

“From Project Pack it up, I gained the thought of being grateful for what I have and it’s always nice to give back to other people. We highly appreciate everyone who took part, helped out, brought stuff in, and we are so thankful that we got together with other groups in the school,” Hair said.

All items got packed into backpacks on April 24, and Safe Landing Shelter, located in Akron, will receive these backpacks on  May 16.