H2O Members Helping Near And Far

This month, members of Lakewood’s youth volunteer program, H2O “Help to Others,” have been busy giving back while having fun! The kids at Garfield and Harding middle schools, along with the kids from Lakewood Catholic Academy and H2O high school members, have been working diligently on two new big projects.

The first project H2O members are helping with is the “Warm Up America” campaign. This campaign, sponsored locally by Pat Catan’s, involves making afghan blankets from 7”x9” knitted or crocheted squares collected by Pat Catan’s Craft store on Berea Rd. H2O middle and high school members are helping by sewing the donated squares together.

Emma Razum, a middle school leader with H2O who assisted the kids from Garfield as they pieced the collected squares together commented, “The kids were really excited to work on the project by giving back and helping in any way that they could.” She continued by saying, “It was the favorite part of their day."

After the afghans are finished they will be donated to victims of natural disasters, women homeless shelters, and other less fortunate people. H2O is extremely excited to be involved in such a great campaign, especially one that has already produced over 250,000 afghans! If you are interested in either helping assemble the squares or donating to the cause, please call the H2O office at 216-529-4173.

The second project that H2O is undertaking is the making and selling of “Hope for Haiti” bracelets. After talking about the recent disaster in Haiti, H2O’s middle and high school members all agreed that we wanted to do something for the people living there. We came up with the great idea of making bracelets to sell at both the high school and middle schools, and having all the proceeds go to help those who have been affected by the earthquake.

Each bracelet is hand made by a middle or high school student from one of the four schools H2O is involved with, and sell for $1.00 each. So far the project has been extremely successful, raising over $150.00 for Haiti relief efforts. H2O plans to combine its proceeds with money raised by the Lakewood High School Key Club. All the funds will be donated directly to the American Red Cross.

As you can see, the students in H2O have been making our own hustle and bustle in the community, as well as expanding our horizons to other countries and needs. As always, we are so grateful for the continuous support from the community and our program sponsors. Thank you!