Printable VersionAbout 20 Lake Havasu High School Key Club students were rained out Saturday night during their inaugural project to raise money, goods and awareness for homelessness.
 Jayne Hanson/News-Herald Phots Lake Havasu High School Key Club members work to clean up their mock homeless camp Sunday morning after their service project to raise money, goods and awareness for homelessness. |
The teens arrived Saturday evening about 7 p.m. to begin shaping their shelters with boxes, plastic, small sections of tarp and crumpled newspaper for insulation. Not long into the challenge, gusty winds and wet weather arrived as an uninvited guest.
Key Club’s Lake Havasu City Kiwanis Club project supervisors pulled the plug on the soaked students about 11 p.m. Saturday due to health and safety — against the will of some of the kids.
“Our box was holding up pretty well. We really wanted to stay,” said Gabby Borland, 16-year-old Key Club member and LHHS student.
LHHS students Denelle Esmay, 16, and Dan Reidenbach, 18, also said they wished they could have stuck out the wet weather that night.
“We were drenched,” Esmay said of her experience. “The boxes were mostly dry inside, but our clothes were really wet,” she said.
Students began arriving one by one Sunday at 8 a.m. to clean up their mock homeless shelter camp.
Half-eaten snacks, forgotten bottles of water, saturated cardboard boxes, sopping sweatshirts, muddy Frisbees and wet blankets were among items salvaged for the temporary camp. The group flattened and tossed the large boxes over the field’s perimeter fence so the remnants could be transported to the dump.
“The lesson learned is: No matter how prepared you are, you are never completely prepared,” said Sergi Heideman, Lake Havasu City Kiwanis Club adviser.
The project was based on pre-pledges, according to faculty adviser and LHHS math teacher Valari Rose-Johnson. With about $660 in pre-pledges, a $200 donation from Golden K Kiwanis Club of Lake Havasu City, and the donation of several very large boxes from Sterilite, the group raised about $900 for the cause, Rose-Johnson said.
Other pledge items included newly purchased blankets as well as donated pillows, jackets, clothing and food items that will be donated to a local agency in order to help needy families. The club will give all the pledges to Lake Havasu City Interagency, which then will distribute them to the various agencies, Rose-Johnson said. The pledges are already in hand, Rose-Johnson said and despite the rain, she doubts anyone would ask for them back
The Key Club’s five student board members learned of the idea to put together the homeless project after attending an international convention linked to the two clubs, Rose-Johnson said.
Key Club is a student-run youth group that is a branch of the local Kiwanis Club.
You may contact the reporter at jhanson@havasunews.com.
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