“What do we have in excess?”
That was the simple question posed by a group of Avon seventh graders who had formed a charitable organization called One for Everyone. When the group was organized five years ago, the youth wanted to help those less fortunate but didn’t know what would be needed. When someone asked, “What do we have in excess,” a focus was born.
“We figured that if we have a lot of an item, then many other members of our community would have a lot, too,” said Justin Flaks, who founded One for Everyone with friends Mckenzie Roller, Ann Hayes, Liam Seeley and Sean Nolan.
Through the years, they’ve collected blankets, t-shirts, towels and books. This winter will be the second time the group has collected donations of sweatshirts to donate. The goal, Flaks said, is 1,000 sweatshirts, many of which will be donated to the clients of the Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute Center in Avon. The group also donates to other organizations like Gifts of Love, Goodwill and area shelters.
“We reach out to others to help. For example, some of us have younger siblings in the same grade so we encouraged them to get donations from their peers,” Flaks said.
The reason for the collection, he continued, is to help people in the community in need.
“We realized that there are some who are less fortunate than us in our community and that we could help them by collecting items that we have in excess and donating them,” he said.
Sweatshirt donations are still being accepted. Anyone wishing to make a donation can email oneforeveryone.2014@gmail.com. More information about the group can also be found here. For more information on the Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute Center in Avon, click here.