Social work intern and University of Georgia senior Peter Pin sits at a desk in the counseling office on March 23. Pin, along with Clarke Central High School social worker Bianca Culver, has organized a toiletry drive that will be held through April 7. “Any support with anything, small or big, helps us out, and it does matter,” Pin said. “It does really help maintain Clarke Central as a place we can go to feel supported, feel connected, feel like you can succeed.” Photo by Valeria Garcia-Pozo.
By VALERIA GARCIA-POZO – News Editor
Social work intern Peter Pin describes the ongoing toiletry drive facilitated through the counseling office to serve students who may not have access to them at home.
News Editor Valeria Garcia-Pozo: Tell me about this toiletry drive idea.
Clarke Central High School social work intern Peter Pin: So, basically, we were deciding on some end-of-the-year projects and things that we can kind of do to support the school system, and one of the needs that we have from a lot of kids is that simple basic toiletries and things like that — it doesn’t come up every day, but it comes up pretty frequently where they don’t have things that you would think that is normal to most households, even things like — just like hand soap and body wash and things like that. And so, when they come to the school social worker, we can do some stuff to help them, but really, we just need like a resource at this school to give to students who for whatever reason — you know, it doesn’t mean anything about the students. It just means they might need some extra help.
VGP: How would students be able to contribute to (the drive)?
PP: Students can bring in — there’s boxes in the front office, and boxes in the counseling office. It’s two boxes, and they can bring in anything to do with toiletry–basically, it’s like, everything is needed. So, toothpaste, toothbrushes, body wash, shampoos, deodorants, feminine products, hand soap. We need — there’s even, like, detergent and things like that, that aren’t necessarily toiletries, but things like that are needed. Just basic household cleaning, cleanliness things — floss, things like that. It’s good for us as a school system to have because we can distribute it to students who need it whenever they need it, and it’s just good to have that as a resource. That’s why we’re holding the drive. The drive is open to students, to anyone who wants to donate and help support the school and other students, and it’s open to all of staff and faculty as well.
VGP: How would students on the receiving end of that be able to collect toiletries?
PP: Once we have an established resource — well, it would depend on — we get a lot of kids coming from different places to Ms. (school social worker Bianca) Culver’s office and then to me, the social workers, and then we kind of distribute as we kind of find out. But that isn’t set in stone yet, so there’s other things that we’re considering doing. We have a food pantry and a clothing closet, some different things that we’re trying to see if we can bring them all together, and so, I wouldn’t — there’s not a set thing, but if anyone needed anything, they can always come to the school social worker, or the school counselor would refer (students) to us probably, and we can work with them. But right now, there’s not a set way where it’s like, “You go here to get this stuff.”
VGP: So when did it start — on March 20? Is that what the poster said?
PP: So we started this past Monday, that’s the official start. It’ll go from March 20 to April 7, that’s the idea. If we feel like we need to add more time, we will. But the idea is that it will be done, not next Friday, but the Friday after.
VGP: How long do you estimate that those resources from the drive will last?
PP: Well, it really depends on how much we get. We’ve gotten donations from the community — some other donations, and so those will last us for a while. And this was like totally — a much-needed need that we had to address at Clarke Central. But, it depends on how it goes. For us, on our end, it’s like, whatever we get, we give out as needed, and when it’s gone, it’s gone. People need stuff, and we’re not gonna hold back on that. We don’t know. Hopefully, it will last us for the end of this year for sure, and then hopefully, well into next school year would be ideal.
VGP: Why do you think something like this is important for this community in particular?
PP: Basically, we’re just responding to something we’ve already seen. Say that there was a big shortage of pencils or something. If there’s a shortage, and we’re constantly hearing that we need that, that’s what we’re responding to. And so we notice the shortage, we notice we need that, and that’s how we’re responding. And this might not be the case for Gwinnett County or for other schools in the district or other schools in the state of Georgia, but for our school, Clarke Central, we just have heard it enough. We realized this is something we need to address. And it does matter for a lot of the kids just to have — it’s a lot of these things are really just basic necessities, and as a school district, we want to be able to support the students and give them what they need.
