The 13th Annual Hands4Hope - Youth Making a Difference Toiletries Drive focused on supporting those in our community who are struggling to make ends meet as well as those who lost their homes or were displaced by the fires in our area over the last couple of years.
The Hands4Hope-Youth Making a Difference Community Engagement Team and Youth Ambassadors worked with local schools in the Folsom, El Dorado and Placerville areas to collect toiletries. The Hands4Hope Ambassadors contacted several local schools to host their own toiletries drive. Each school advertised the drive through posters and flyers that included information about their drives and items to collect such as dental supplies, deodorant, hair products, sunscreen, and many more items that were requested and needed. The drive lasted roughly three weeks from mid February through the beginning of March.
All donated toiletries were picked up from the participating schools and businesses and sorted and counted by Hands4Hope volunteers at a variety of sorting and counting events throughout the month of March. In total between all of the schools that competed and the businesses that participated, over 10,137 items were collected which is over 4,000 more items collected this year than last.
The schools that participated this year were: Oak Meadow, Jackson, Valley View, Silva Valley, William Brooks, Natoma Station, Gallardo, Gold Ridge, Empire Oaks, Buckeye, and California Montessori Project (CMP). In addition to the schools that joined in the collection, a few local businesses also participated. Lyon Real Estate (Cameron Park), Shingle Springs and Placerville Snap Fitness, Folsom Massage Heights, Heritage Community and Surf Soccer Club helped significantly with the collection of many toiletries as well.
The Traveling Trophy the schools compete for is given to the school that collected the most toiletries in its specific region. The 2023 winners of the Traveling Toiletries Drive Trophy are Gold Ridge Elementary, Oak Meadow Elementary and CMP. Congratulations to the winners and a huge thank you to all of the schools and businesses that participated in the toiletries drive this year. We truly couldn’t do this without your help and generosity.
All toiletries will be donated to Hands4Hope partner agencies throughout El Dorado and Sacramento Counties which include but are not limited to, Loaves and Fishes, Sister Nora’s Place, Green Valley Community Church, Upper Room Dining Hall, as well as Caldor Fire survivors.