The Family Radio Network’s Help for the Homeless Hygiene Drive Tops $723,000
The Family Radio Network’s 33rd annual Help for the Homeless Hygiene Drive celebrates another record-breaking year! Over $723,000 worth of new hygiene and cleaning supplies now stock the shelves of 137 crisis programs in 22 communities across Wisconsin. The Family Radio Network thanks over 1,050 businesses, churches, and schools who hosted collection boxes and all those who so generously donated these products to help their local crisis programs. We partner with area crisis programs and homeless coalitions by inviting the community to donate needed hygiene and cleaning items for their local agencies through the Help for the Homeless Hygiene Drive. These donations make it possible for local crisis programs to direct their limited financial resources to provide qualified staff, safe housing, nutritious food, education, and counseling to those they serve.
A client of a participating local community support agency had stopped buying laundry detergent a long time ago, as other things, like rent, food, and medicine became higher priorities. The client had been handwashing her shirts in the sink, rotating what she wore, and hoping folks didn’t notice the smell. She later shared she had done three loads of laundry the day she’d been given the soap, and she said, “The smell of clean clothes filled my tiny apartment. For the first time in a while, I felt like I could breathe easier. It wasn’t just the detergent. It was hope, wrapped in a plastic bottle. A reminder that I mattered and that someone cared.”
A client at another participating local community support agency shared, “The stress of deciding between buying food to eat or buying a basic hygiene product is overwhelming and demoralizing. When I received a hygiene bag, I knew someone cared about me and my well-being. This was a powerful motivator for change and it empowered me to actively start looking for better employment opportunities.”
The Family Radio Network, along with the 137 participating crisis programs, thanks everyone who hosted boxes, donated, volunteered with, promoted, and sponsored the drive! Businesses, churches, and schools participate by placing collection boxes in their high-traffic areas and inviting their own staff, members, and students to donate. Financial donations are also welcome. Since 1992, The Family Radio Network’s Help for the Homeless Hygiene Drive has provided 6.7 million dollars’ worth of hygiene and cleaning supplies for local Wisconsin crisis programs, with donations remaining in the communities where they are collected.
