Something good is happening in Fort Worth, thanks to some TCU students making a difference through their class project.
Alana McKendall and Hazel Herman were assigned a project in their English class to discover a problem and find a solution to a problem plaguing the community.
Through discussions with the 8th-grade counselors, the girls learned that low-income schools like Riverside Middle School in Fort Worth suffer from another problem -- lack of access to basic needs like hygiene products.
"About 98% of the middle school qualifies for free lunch, which is a firm indicator of poverty," said McKendall. "Food stamps and government-funded programs do not allow these individuals to purchase hygiene products, but only food items."
Therefore, hygiene necessities are not fulfilled.
"The lack of access to these hygiene products are roadblocks to their attendance and performance in school, thus perpetuating more problems later on," said McKendall.
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Their solution? Holding a massive fundraiser on the TCU campus!
The girls collected nearly 1,000 hygiene products and donated it all to the middle school students in the last month.
McKendall and Herman hope their efforts can help raise more awareness about hygiene poverty and other issues local schools face.
"It literally changed our lives. Helping these students was not only a transformative experience but granted us an opportunity to view our privilege through a different scope," said McKendall. "It was rewarding and eye-opening to see how monumental our efforts were. We realized all it took was a smile and a willing hand."
