At Josephine County Foundation, teens lead community projects

Now, before the break, we were talking about campus closets that operate like thrift stores across various different campuses.

Andrea, how many campus closets are there?

You know, I don't actually have that number or I would give it to you, but we do have several.

I know we have one.

Some of them we operate through a program that we have that's called the Student Enrichment Program, where different teachers, different schools can apply for a grant through our foundation.

And some of those are funded through their Student Enrichment Program program.

And they manage those.

So I know we have one at Lincoln Savage.

We have one at Fort Vanoi Elementary that we help fund.

We have one actually at Sunny Wolf Charter out in Wolf Creek.

We have several different ones all over that we help out in various ways.

But our biggest one is definitely here at Hidden Valley High School.

It sounds like a lot of fun for the kids to just go in there and shop just like they're at a regular store.

Yeah, so the most important thing for us was there not to be a stigma behind going into our campus closets, which is why it's set up kind of like a thrift shop.

We don't want any kids to ever feel embarrassed about going into our campus closets.

needing something.

And I think we've done a really fantastic job of making that, making the kids feel welcome and having something for everybody.

We have, I mean, we have old PE clothes, for instance, at the end of the school year, we have to clean out the lockers and Kids leave their PE clothes.

We have to buy those.

So we wash them, dry them, fold them, put them in there based off of their sizes because you have to buy PE clothes, for instance, if you're in PE or strength and conditioning.

And so kids can go in there and just grab a new pair without having to pay for them.

Again, some kids, one of the barriers might be they want to go to prom, but they don't have the formal wear for that.

So they can just go in and, you know, the guys can pick out a suit or if they're in an interview, they can pick out a suit or a tie or a button up collared shirt.

The girls can go in and get formal dresses that maybe somebody else didn't want anymore.

It's we've really done a great job, I feel like, of just making it feel so open.

Now, before the break, we were talking about campus closets that operate like thrift stores across various different campuses.

Andrea, how many campus closets are there?

You know, I don't actually have that number or I would give it to you, but we do have several.

I know we have one.

Some of them we operate through a program that we have that's called the Student Enrichment Program, where different teachers, different schools can apply for a grant through our foundation.

And some of those are funded through their Student Enrichment Program program.

And they manage those.

So I know we have one at Lincoln Savage.

We have one at Fort Vanoi Elementary that we help fund.

We have one actually at Sunny Wolf Charter out in Wolf Creek.

We have several different ones all over that we help out in various ways.

But our biggest one is definitely here at Hidden Valley High School.

It sounds like a lot of fun for the kids to just go in there and shop just like they're at a regular store.

Yeah, so the most important thing for us was there not to be a stigma behind going into our campus closets, which is why it's set up kind of like a thrift shop.

We don't want any kids to ever feel embarrassed about going into our campus closets.

needing something.

And I think we've done a really fantastic job of making that, making the kids feel welcome and having something for everybody.

We have, I mean, we have old PE clothes, for instance, at the end of the school year, we have to clean out the lockers and Kids leave their PE clothes.

We have to buy those.

So we wash them, dry them, fold them, put them in there based off of their sizes because you have to buy PE clothes, for instance, if you're in PE or strength and conditioning.

And so kids can go in there and just grab a new pair without having to pay for them.

Again, some kids, one of the barriers might be they want to go to prom, but they don't have the formal wear for that.

So they can just go in and, you know, the guys can pick out a suit or if they're in an interview, they can pick out a suit or a tie or a button up collared shirt.

The girls can go in and get formal dresses that maybe somebody else didn't want anymore.

It's we've really done a great job, I feel like, of just making it feel so open.