January 2024 - Sarah Olsen, Character Development Curriculum Administrator
Have you ever watched someone try to move a piano into or out of a house? With one person, it’s a physically impossible task. However, when dozens of people all help out, the work becomes much lighter and easier.
Our students learn this principle every year through the annual Donation Drive. Each school sets a donation goal that at first glance seems nearly unreachable. Students wonder how in the world they are going to collect tens of thousands of items to donate. And yet little by little, one donation at a time, their boxes fill up. Every year, our campuses wildly exceed goals they had once thought impossible.
This year was no different. Each school set their own goal, and all combined, our campuses hoped to donate 28,350 hygiene items. In just 18 days, our campuses had more than tripled their planned donations, ultimately collecting 101,757 hygiene items! This amazing number wasn’t reached all at once. Rather, most students donated just a few items on their own, but when counted all together, each little contribution added up in a big way. Jacob Brady from the WV3 campus put it this way, “Even though it doesn’t seem that your small donation would help at all, when you’ve got a lot of people just doing a little bit of a thing, then they can all together do something great.”
Marcus Griffith from D3 shared how his campus was motivated to donate so many items. “If everyone contributes, you can hit amazing goals. Like, we made it so at [a goal of] 6,000 you only needed like 8 [donations] per person. Everyone contributed a ton more, and that’s how we made it to 30,000 [donations], ‘cause when you think about it, if you just break it up, it’s not a lot per person.” Students found that when everyone works together, they can accomplish so much more than they ever thought possible.
The collected donations of hygiene items were given to the charity organization Globus Relief for worldwide distribution. Workers at Globus Relief told students they planned to distribute the items to local homeless services in Salt Lake County, to schools that have homeless student relief programs, to Ethiopia to help with disaster relief after recent earthquakes, and to Ukraine to help those displaced and struggling due to the ongoing war. When asked what they would tell students who worry that their single donation won’t make much of a difference, one of the workers said, “One toothbrush, anything makes a difference just because a lot of these places don’t have the supplies that they need. I mean, just as an example, you have, third world countries that use a single piece of gauze, and they just resterilize that just to help out another person, so even just donating a toothbrush, toothpaste … it makes a huge difference for someone else who is in need of those supplies.”
We want to give a huge thank you to the students, staff, families, and community members who contributed to this year’s Donation Drive! Every item made a difference, and people all around the world are grateful for your donations.
Donation Drive Delivery video
November 2023 - Sarah Olsen, Character Development Curriculum Administrator
In some parts of the world, a simple toothbrush could cost up to one whole week’s worth of pay. Many families don’t have adequate access to soap, shampoo, or other basic hygiene necessities. This winter, our APA students, families, and staff have the chance to help them out.
APA is partnering with an organization called Globus Relief to donate much-needed hygiene supplies to families around the world. In its 20 years of operation, Globus Relief has sent over $1 billion dollars worth of medical, health, and hygiene supplies to 150 countries and territories. Some of this has been thanks to our students’ help and donations. The last time APA partnered with Globus Relief, we donated 43,545 hygiene items. We were able to help tens of thousands of people.
We are once again hoping to have a similar impact this year. From December 1st through December 15th, each campus will be collecting donations of unused, unopened hygiene items such as soap, shampoo, toothbrushes, toothpaste, hand sanitizer, lotion, baby wash, deodorant, combs, tissues, and other similar items. These items can be full-sized or travel-sized, but they must be unopened.
Donating tens of thousands of items might seem like a lofty goal, but small donations can add up to have a big impact. If every student donated even one $1 bar of soap, that alone would add up to over 6,000 items. The power of our donations is that we can help so many more people when we work together than if we tried to do it alone.
We hope that you will take this opportunity to be a part of something incredible and donate at least one item before December 15th. Even a simple toothbrush can make a difference.