Two high school students meet inside their local Safeway. One has a fun, colorful, decorated bin with a few canned goods and stationery supplies. The other comes with nothing but her phone and a smile on her face. The two girls set the bin on top of a few Coca-Cola boxes and stand beside it. The front of the box? It says only a mere four words.
Helping Up & Onwards.
The girls tell late-holiday grocery shoppers that they’ll be collecting donations of clothing, canned food, notebooks, pencils, and hygiene products and are working with Helping Up Mission in Baltimore. They leave their bin to eager customers over two days and come back to find many useful items, as well as some monetary donations. With the help of their community, Liz Krupinsky and Sophia Patzkowski have raised over $300.
The Helping Up Mission was started in Baltimore City in 1885 to help the people of Baltimore recover from addiction, poverty, homelessness, and more. By being partnered with Baltimore City’s Mayor’s Office of Homeless Services, they can have shelters and overnight guest services, such as recovery and housing programs all over the city. As students fond of the city and eager to help others, Krupinsky and Patzkowski partnered with the organization, bringing their slogan, ‘Now it’s up to us’ to the Severna Park community.
