Mantua – For nearly every year since 2010, Crestwood Middle School teacher Kim Marfy and her fellow staff have encouraged eighth-graders to volunteer in the local community for a charity of their choice. In order to encourage them in their efforts, Marfy shares video clips from CNN highlighting that news organizations top 10 CNN Hero winners from 2017, which gave students a brief introduction to people from around the country who are doing what they can to help those in need.
Students learned of projects big and small that began when regular people saw a problem and figured out how they could help solve it. Some projects help heal big problems a world away, like the retired school teacher who cares for over 5,000 orphans in South Africa, many of whom lost their parents to HIV. But most are closer to home.
Some require special skills, like the BBQ pit master from Missouri who uses his unique culinary skills to feed victims and first responders during local disaster events. Some required being in the right place at the right time, like a female police officer from Chicago who created an after school program to enrich the lives of at-risk kids in her neighborhood.
Other projects were born from challenging circumstances or personal tragedies, like the veteran from South Carolina who now holds therapeutic surf camps to help other veterans overcome their injuries, or the mom in Texas, healing from the loss of her son by helping children with serious illnesses stay connected to school and friends through technology. But it was a simple project closer to home drew the attention of three of Marfy’s students this year.
Bethy Albrecht, Jynx Bretz, and Ali Pope were drawn to the project created by Samir Lakhani, founder of the Eco Soap Bank in nearby Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The charity was founded after a visit Lakhani made to Cambodia as a student, where he learned that basic hygiene skills, like hand washing, could save children from illness and even death in developing countries. To solve this issue, he began by creating a program to save, sanitize, and supply recycled hotel soaps in that country, delivering recycled bars and hygiene education to disadvantaged people in that country. Not only does his project improve the health of local families, it employs disadvantaged women to collect and process the soap, and reduces waste generated by the hotel industry, as well.
The girls were motivated by how something that most of us take for granted — a bar of soap — could so dramatically change the lives of people living in a part of the world so different from theirs. On behalf of her students, Marfy reached out to the ten CNN heroes, expressing her students’ appreciation for their efforts, and asking for suggestions on how students can help. All but Lakhani responded, so Marfy began what she jokingly referred to as ‘stalking’ Lakhani on social media, “but definitely not in a creepy way,” she added.
Eventually, her persistence on behalf of her students was rewarded, and Lakhani agreed to Skype with her class. In return, Albrecht, Bretz, and Pope agreed to hold a soap drive at CMS to benefit Lakhani’s organization. They set the goal of collecting 200 pounds of soap, and encouraged fellow students with a donut party for the classroom who collected the most new bars of soap. At the start of their drive, the driven young women visited each classroom, explaining to fellow students how something we take for granted can make such a difference to others, dubbing their project, ‘hygiene for happiness’.
“I’ve done lots of volunteer work,” shared Ali Pope. “I try to put myself in other people’s shoes, and look for ways I can help them out,” she explained. “Even the smallest things can make a huge impact.”
“Helping other people feels good,” Jynx Bretz added. “Making other people feel better is inspiring; it makes me happy.” Bethy Albrecht was inspired by the difference they could make. “I imagine those people in Cambodia — and how many lives we can change, or even save,” she shared. “This drive can make such a big difference!” she marveled.
The ladies collected 200 pounds of soap, easily meeting their collection goal, and are now in the process of collecting donations to cover the cost of shipping. To make a donation to Hygiene for Happiness, contact Mrs. Marfy at kmarfy@crestwoodschools.org. For more information on the Eco Soap Bank, visit ecosoapbank.org.
