The Daybreak Shelter provides a range of services to those struggling with substance abuse, homelessness, and opiate addiction, including educational help, mental health counseling, and emergency shelter.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Shelter was forced to operate at a lower capacity while demand for its services remained high. It reached out to us because it was running low on supplies.
We provided 3-6 months worth of hygiene products, toiletries, water bottles, backpacks, water filtration systems, and groceries to the shelter. While this was a one-time project, we are considering making our support more regular since there is an ongoing need.
We also worked with the Middlesex Human Services Agency (MHSA) to help children living in shelters adjust and adapt to virtual learning. They reached out to us and requested school supplies, from pencils and notebooks to wireless mice and headsets. We assembled “Education Kits” for 120 children and delivered them to the MHSA. We also supplied them with breakfast cereal boxes.
We have also donated backpacks before the beginning of the school year and run online tutoring for low-income families in the Merrimack Valley, donating 150 backpacks and holding more than 15 hours of tutoring.
We have been working with the Lowell General Hospital’s Social Work Department to support cancer patients in the Lowell area. The hospital provided us the names of families that, due to financial circumstances, don’t have enough money for groceries every month.
Our volunteers work with these families to create a grocery list and buy and deliver groceries to them. We are currently supporting 12-14 families every month and plan to expand the program to neighboring hospitals.
We have worked with the Red Cross to run a biannual blood drive at our Old Ferry Road Facility. So far, 33 donors have stepped up to donate almost 100 units of blood, or 50 liters.
Our volunteers help in the kitchen and with registration during Alumni Week, when hundreds of Perkins alumni return to campus for activities. As volunteers, we help by taking care of their luggage, serving breakfast to the students, setting up food during lunch, creating floral arrangements for the evening banquets, coordinating games during the carnival, helping out during the sports activities, collecting used linens for laundry, and collecting trash bags.
Our volunteers have also helped out during the Bay State Council of the Blind Convention, arranged by the Perkins School. We volunteered at the registration desks as guide and assistants to the visually impaired attendees at the convention.
During Easter, volunteers assemble eggs for the annual Easter Egg Hunt for current Perkins students.
The United States Government evacuated thousands of Afghan Humanitarian Parolees (AHPs) in 2021, and about 425 of them have arrived or are arriving in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. We are working with local nonprofits and religious organizations to help these recipients, who helped our country when we needed them, settle in and adapt to life in America. Most of them have come here without any money, credit history, or knowledge of English. As such, there are a variety of ways for us to provide love and support to these families. We formed teams to provide donations (e.g., household goods, utensils, furniture), meals, groceries, care packages, ESL tutoring, and help with transportation (grocery store, laundromat, government offices, etc).
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