Main fundraiser photo

Homeless Kids School Supply Drive

Who We Are:  We are Lorraine Hill and  Laura Carleton. We are bonded friends and each other's champions.  Our paths first crossed when Lorraine was a resident of Drueding Center, a transitional housing program founded by the Sisters of the Holy Redeemer in the Kensington section of Philadelphia   for homeless women and their children  when   I  (Laura) served   as the  Director of Education and Employment. 
                                            Lorraine( right) and I  back in the day...


Lorraine is a force of nature who raised her 3 young  grandchildren and attended and graduated college while  struggling    through  familial trauma and homelessness. She succesfully raised them to be bright, caring,  self-reliant  young men and women.

I (Laura) am a mom of 3 who has worked with  homeless, low income and  traumatized and struggling families  throughout the city of Philadelphia in  a variety of educational roles.  The most astoundingly  courageous,  resourceful, good humored  and determined woman I have met in all these years of serving Philadelphia's underserved communities is hands down, Lorraine Hill. 



Who  We Are Raising Money for: Lorraine and I are  raising money for  the  children who currently reside in the place we first met. We would like to  make sure these  homeless children  living in transitional housing have what they need to put their best foot forward in  the upcoming school year. 

More about Holy Redeemer's Drueding Center Transitional Housing Program

How the Money Will be used:  With the help of Drueding Center   staff, we have collected a list of the children's   specific school requirments.  In Philadelphia,  schools both public and charter, send our city's kids home with a long list of required supplies-- from certain pencil and crayon types to disinfectant wipes and paper towels. In addition, each child of course needs  a backbag  to carry all their supplies to and from class each day. While this puts an annual  strain on  every working  family's wallet, for single moms raising their young children in the  shelter system,  that  strain is  immeasurably and unquestionably  greater. 

  Enjoying a tasty craft activity at Drueding Center Daycare

Why We  are Doing This:   This effort to support the education of this city's most at risk and in need youth comes from a very personal place.  

We are doing this in honor of Lorraine's grandson, Nafice DaShawn  Hill.

                  Nafice DaShawn Hill  and his 1,000 watt smile 

Nafice, just 25 years old--bright, always smiling, engaged, charming and charasmatic, a hard worker and a loving father to his young daughter Nevaeh-- was gunned down  on  January 12th , 2016.  As his math tutor and a trusted friend of his grandmother's, I remember a  young boy who  loved to learn, to draw,  a young man with unlimited potential.  Nafice mastered math and as a young adult gave back by tutoring others in this same subject  he once struggled in.  


We want to honor him by keeping his light shining. We want these students, the future of this city, to go back to school this year with his spirit and love of learning.
We want to give them a equal footing in the classroom on the first day of school.
We see in their eyes the same unlimited potential we saw in Nafice's.  

Funds needed ASAP so we can purchase the supplies and get them to families in need at  Drueding Centerbefore the first day of school.

Any funds in excess of what is required to make purchases for the children of Drueding Center will go toward future artistic and educational  endeavors we would like to provide for Drueding Center  families in the name of  our beloved Nafice.

Donations 

  • karen numme
    • $10 
    • 8 yrs

Organizer

Laura Addesi
Organizer
Philadelphia, PA

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