EASTHAMPTON — Judith Breier, a teacher at White Brook Middle School, stood in front of a gaggle of students after school. They chattered to one another as they pulled deodorant, wipes, shampoo and more out of shopping bags.
“Everyone needs to count,” Breier told them. “We need 20 of everything.”
The group was counting toiletries to create 20 “survival backpacks” Thursday afternoon for homeless teens in the area. It was a project for students’ WE group, a club affiliated with the nonprofit WE Charity, which promotes global youth advocacy.
The club, which includes Easthampton middle and high schoolers, serves the local and global community by volunteering, fundraising and collecting items to donate.
The backpack supplies were bought using a $250 grant from the Allstate Foundation. The bags will be given to the Easthampton Community Center, where WE club members volunteer once a month.
“The kids did a fabulous job,” Easthampton Community Center Director Robin Bialecki said. “I know our clients who receive the backpacks will be thrilled to have them.”
Bialecki said the center currently provides food to eight people ages 15 to 21 who are independent of parents and homeless. The number of young people seeking their services fluctuates, she said, but six to eight is average at any given time.
The backpack project started after Bialecki visited the WE club during one of its weekly meetings to answer student questions about homelessness and hunger in their area.
“I wanted to impress on the kids that there are hungry people everywhere, in every community and town,” Bialecki said. The kids became interested in local homeless teens, and the idea for the backpacks emerged.
The Easthampton Community Center serves about 3,500 people from the area who are homeless or food insecure, Bialecki said.
Breier started the school’s WE program a few years ago with inspiration from Craig Kielburger’s documentary on child exploitation, “It Takes a Child.” She saw the film about 20 years ago, but, as an elementary teacher, couldn’t get her too-young students involved with the cause.
When she began to teach fifth grade at the middle school a few years ago, she taught her students about global communities in need during their persuasive writing unit. Students argued in essays for which community they believed the school should sponsor through WE.
This year, the 22-member group raised almost $3,000 for Kalthana, India, to support and create better health systems in the area.
The group also donated almost one ton of food to the ECC over the course of the year.
Abigail Achmad joined the club in fourth grade after her mom showed her photos of child laborers.
The sixth-grader said the club works well because all of its members are committed to the cause.
“No one is here to mess around,” Achmad said. “We’re here to help people who need it.”