Homeless women and children via The Shade Tree are the recipients.
Las Vegas Day School holds monthly charity drives in which students in Preschool through Eighth grade participate. This month, the Toiletry Drive had students bringing in hundreds of personal hygiene items that will be donated to homeless women and children at The Shade Tree shelter.
Las Vegas Day School’s National Junior Honor Society middle school students volunteer for morning shifts throughout the week of the drive to collect the contributions from their fellow students, supervised by long-time LVDS Instructional Aide Mrs. Debbie Porter.
“The ‘Charity Wagon’ is often filled to the brim after each morning’s donations,” Porter says. She sends the student volunteers over to the Kinderschool with a smaller wagon to collect items from the youngest LVDS students. “They come back with the small wagon full each day, too. We didn’t count how many things were donated, but at the end of the week, we had between 40 and 50 of the large black Hefty bags full of items. It’s so wonderful to see how generous our families are!” Porter adds.
Las Vegas Day School’s January Toiletry Drive brought in hundreds of items including shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and lotions. These items are listed as “items of greatest need at this time” on The Shade Tree’s donations wish list, which can be found on the Donate tab of The Shade Tree’s website, www.theshadetree.org.
According to their website, The Shade Tree helped 2,290 families and provided 23,240 nights of shelter last year. The Shade Tree, established in 1989, is the largest shelter of its kind in Nevada and offers 24-hour accessible shelter designed to meet the needs of abused and homeless women, their children, and pets. The Shade Tree’s mission is to offer life-changing services promoting stability, dignity, and self-reliance to these families in need regardless of social status.