The first Boxes of Hope delivered in Parsons
Madison Lubbers (center) and fellow FCCLA members and classmates stand behind Boxes of Hope they delivered to the Parsons Police Department Thursday afternoon. The boxes will be given to children entering foster care or shelters who need items they could not take with them when they left home.
It is easy for high school students to get caught up in their own needs as they journey through their last four years of K-12 education and prepare for their future, but there are some, such as Parsons High School junior Madison Lubbers, who still fi nd the time to focus on the needs of others. Lubbers, challenged with creating a project for this year’s FCCLA competition, tapped into an existing passion she has for helping other youths not as fortunate as herself who do not have a stable home life.
This led to her creating Boxes of Hope, which are boxes of necessities for children ages 0-18 entering foster care or who are removed from their homes and placed in shelters. “I’ve always been passionate about the foster care system. I’ve always, like all my school years, written about the issues in foster care,” Lubbers said. “I’ve always wanted to volunteer and help them, so I created this to make a little change, to make them feel they have someone and have their own things.” Lubbers said her English teacher used to be a therapist and they talked about issues the children face. “She said she would see kids come in with a trash bag of their things, or they would just have a couple of minutes to grab some things, so they wouldn’t be able to get a lot of their things,” Lubbers said.
Some children, in emergency situations, get removed with just the clothes on their backs. “I thought, if it was me, I would want my own things, or something comforting, like a blanket. I wouldn’t want to have to worry about stuff. And some foster homes don’t know what they need. They are new to this, or shelters don’t have enough money to get them things, so this is an easier way,” she said. “I would feel happier about it if someone gave me things that will be my own.” Items in the Boxes of Hope are aggregated into three age groups: infant, elementary and adolescent. The boxes are curated toward those ages, she said. “I thought that would be easier than doing one big box,” she said. “And then there is a boy and a girl box.” “There’s like coloring books in them, pencils, a water bottle, a blanket, shampoo … kind of like anything they would need,” Lubbers said. “They all have a stuffed animal in them and then there is like a littleletter that each gets that says: ‘If you need anything, you can contact us,’ so if they just need a shampoo or something like that, they can just contact us and get that.”
The “us,” Lubbers said, consists of herself and her family and consumer sciences teacher Courtney Shafer, who is also listed on Lubber’s Boxes of Hope fl ier as a contact. Help to get the initial boxes together came from her parents, whom she said work at Strategic Partners and were kind in donating to her project. “Also, Ducommun set up a huge donation box where all the employees there donated,” she said. “They donated a lot of stuff.” Then, she said, all of the FCCLA girls helped her put the boxes together to deliver to the Parsons Police Department on Thursday. Shafer said she is proud of Lubbers. “She has done a great job on her project,” Shafer added. While the project was initiated for the FCCLA competition, Lubbers said she is going to keep doing it in the future. “I just received a grant for this, so that is good,” she said. “The police station is my fi rst drop off for this and then I will probably go do some at the boys shelter.”
School districts report Labette County has an uncommonly high percentage of foster children coming and going throughout the year, so there is a continuing need. Donations needed are: Shampoo, conditioner, body wash, baby bottles, pacifi ers, baby snacks, small stuffed animals, toothpaste, toothbrushes, toothbrush caps, deodorant, hair brushes, coloring books, bottles of water, journals, coloring pencils and crayons, socks, blankets, non-perishable food items and backpacks.
Donations by cash or check are also welcomed. There are three drop-off locations in Parsons: Parsons High School, 3030 Morton; Strategic Partners, 1603 Crawford Ave.; and Pure Life Nutrition, 1301 Main. Those with questions can contact Madison Lubbers at madisonlubbers@vikingnet. net or Courtney Shafer at cshafer@vikingnet.net.
Lubbers said she is not sure what has always drawn her attention to the foster care system. She had always wanted to be a therapist or something like a social worker. She is not going to college to do either of those now but intends to go to cosmetology school. Still, she said, she will continue to help as she can. “I like helping people a lot and the foster community. ... I want to foster when I am older, so I think that’s where my passion is. I like volunteering and going to the shelters,” she said. “It is just something that I enjoy.” She plans to be a part of Big Brothers Big Sisters as a “Big,” and she said once she gets settled into her career she plans to do Boxes of Hope from her business, wherever that ends up being.
