SHIFT donates duffel bags to Children’s Hospital for foster teens

Students Helping Impact Foster Teens (SHIFT) donated duffel bags to foster teens in Milwaukee through the Children’s Hospital Donation Center. The bags were filled with toys, homemade cards, bracelets and toiletries. Anna Lalande, senior co-president of SHIFT, spoke about the way these children live and her experience with learning more about the system itself. “The majority of kids in foster care carry a single garbage bag filled with a few belongings, and we wanted to change that.”

Throughout the year, SHIFT has donated over 40 ‘sweet cases’ to Children’s Hospital to give to foster teens. Lalande explained, “We took our last set of the year down to the Children’s Hospital, and this time they showed us their foster care center, told us about the origin of their program and explained how they’re helping local foster kids, which was a really cool experience.”

Although SHIFT has many projects, their overall goal for the year was to make and hand out the duffel bags which turned out to be a success. “What we do is important since most of the kids in the system don’t have personal items to call their own,” Katie Haddad, senior.

Maya Kurtin, junior, vice president of SHIFT, expressed her thoughts on the club and what they do. “I love SHIFT; it is a great way to get involved within Homestead and an even better way to help serve our community. It is such an incredible feeling to be leaving an imprint of happiness and love on the foster children.”