Texas Students Donate 240 Articles of Warm Clothing & Blankets Individuals Experiencing Homelessness

The third cycle of the Climate Leaders Fellowship program led students around the world in designing and implementing a volunteer project in their local communities.

After recognizing a need that is caused or exacerbated by climate change, students collaborated with local organizations that could benefit from a donation drive.

The online program is offered in a collaboration between the Stanford University Deliberative Democracy Lab and the Rustic Pathways Foundation.

Read on to find out more about Manvi, Jessie and Yumi’s in Texas below!

Manvi Vatani
Dulles High School
Sugar Land, Texas

Manvi, a high school sophomore, describes a time in Texas when it was so hot that people could head to the beach for Christmas. Today, the temperatures can dip below twenty degrees fahrenheit.

This inspired Manvi to take action and help the homeless, who are especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change. With no warm place to stay and often not enough money to buy proper clothing, Manvi wanted to do her part to make a difference.

Manvi placed posters and boxes around her school, also posted on social media to get donations of warm clothes and blankets. Then she moved the boxes of clothes and blankets to the Fort Bend Women’s Center to be distributed to people experiencing homelessness. Around forty pieces of warm clothing and blankets were donated!

“I am so glad my classmates were kind enough to donate so much and that I was able to give it to people that needed it, making their life a bit easier.” says Manvi. “The Climate Leaders Fellowship helped me step out of my comfort zone to do something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, help people.”

Jessie Choi and Yumi Choi
The Brook Hill School
Bullard, Texas

Jessie, Yumi and another teammate hosted a clothing-drive, asking students from their school dorm community for donations. They decided to focus their project on extreme cold weather events caused by climate change, which has a particularly negative effect on low-income residents who lack warm clothes for the winter season.

During this project the team learned that planning ahead is very important. They often had unexpected problems but overcame the obstacles by adjusting their plans.

In total they collected around 200 articles of clothing! They donated it to a children’s center that serves homeless individuals at a local church.

“I faced a lot of challenges when I was working on this climate change project and realized being a change-maker starts with trying small and simple things,” says Jessie. “At first, I had no idea where to begin but my teammates encouraged each other and were all able to build leadership, cooperation, and research skills.”

During the fellowship Yumi gained a new perspective and realized the seriousness of climate change. “While some of us live without problems and take things for granted, some face difficult problems everyday due to climate change,” she says.