Organizing with Purpose
Emily’s Gold Award Project, “Organizing with Purpose” comes out of the events following the COVID 19 pandemic. The Midnight Run, once providing regular deliveries of food, clothing and a social connection to people living in shelters and on the streets, suffered a tremendous loss with the pandemic and Emily was fortunate to hear of a local family who decided to step up. The Hudson Valley Midnight Run was making weekly deliveries to NYC. She decided to join them, and although it was a very uncertain time, it gave her a tremendous sense of self-worth. Emily and her mother packed up supplies drove into the city and set up distribution on street corners all around Manhattan throughout the evening.
The experience taught her so much, and she decided to continue to help. Emily began to research how to help the family with organizing their donations, get others involved in the project, and continue to make the runs, with her mom and others. She was able to identify a need, act on that need and get others involved. Emily put together a shelving unit, added labeled bins and organized donations for the runs, cutting down the prep time by 300 percent.
Through her experience working with the Red Cross and volunteering at various blood drives, Emily was able to share her Gold Project with people, raising awareness and educating them about the Midnight Run, how to help and what type of things are distributed regularly. In addition to getting a captured audience, she was also able to access community partnership funds to purchase items to support her project goals. The Red Cross purchased cases of small bottles of “liquid gold” hand sanitizer, disposable body cloths, hot cocoa powder, garage shelving unit and the plastic bins she needed to help get the donations and supplies organized for the runs and storage. The support from the Red Cross gave her the advantage she needed to make a difference. The Hudson Valley Midnight Run was well supplied but what they really needed was help getting it all organized. Emily put together a small team, utilized her organizational skills and started getting to work organizing the supplies, shoes and clothing into labeled bins for easy “grab and go” and distribution. This also encouraged the group to seek out more help from other members of the community. Cutting the time and work makes the process so much more sustainable.
Emily shared this project at many blood drives, large and small Girl Scout events, with her High School friends and Clubs. There are always people and groups willing to help, but they don’t always know the best ways to help. The mission of the Midnight Run is to make meaningful connections between the housed and homeless. Emily was fortunate to make connections have this opportunity and she enjoyed sharing my experiences with others. Now with the run so organized, they had time to come up with special themes for our runs.
These past 3 years have been challenging in so many ways and the scope of her project has gone way beyond just organizing a pantry for food, clothing, shoes and supplies. It has addressed a greater need, and especially now as we all recover from the impacts of the COVID pandemic, locally, nationally and worldwide. Completing her Gold Award project has challenged Emily and given her an opportunity to make a difference in her community and beyond.