We know about helpers whenever there's a need in Maryland. But who is helping THEM?
Every day, local nonprofits quietly go about the business of trying to help where help is needed.
They serve children. Teens. Adults. Seniors. Everyone. And sometimes the work is overwhelming. The "helpers" need a little help.
United Way of Washington County, for example, plays a role in much of business of caring locally, with 85 active mission partners or organizations served, and affecting nearly 65,000 county residents through community impact programs and collaborations, according to President and CEO Heather Guessford.
Last year, the agency looked for ways to meet a need that might not be obvious, but was having a serious effect on school attendance.
"Heather was very receptive to food insecurity," said Stacey Abeles, United Way's community education advocate and Books United coordinator, but "there's also hygiene insecurity," particularly in rural school districts where families don't have easy access to aid.
And students sometimes don't go to school because they don't feel clean, and they're embarrassed.
"We were notified by a school counselor at a remote WCPS that they had an increase in absenteeism due to hygiene issues with their students," Guessford said. "The families were in service deserts and lacked the transportation to go to a nonprofit who offered free hygiene supplies," and only two agencies were offering them, she added.
"As a result, we delivered hygiene to them."
But meeting that need has gotten to be such a large undertaking that United Way needed a little help.
United Way has established "hygiene pantries" in a few schools, at Hagerstown Community College, and at Zion Reformed United Church of Christ and Parkside Community Center in Hagerstown, where these families can get the items they need. There are 10 hygiene closets in all, but the program is growing.
"This was a niche that no one was doing," Guessford said. "Since then, it's grown like crazy."
What difference do these hygiene closets make?
Last September, this project served 400 county residents, Guessford said. "By January it was 1,176," she said, "and at the end of March we were over 1,200 lives impacted."
"We had five essential items that were supplied by the closet," Abeles said, "toothpaste, toothbrush, shampoo, deodorant, body wash … we started to get all these requests; we had (someone) call us and say, 'Hey, can you possibly get us some body wipes?' And we were like, 'You mean like the Purell, the hand sanitizer, the flushable wipes?' They said, 'No, we need body wipes because we don't have running water and we want to wipe our kids down before they go to school in the morning so they're clean.' It still chokes me up."
The good news is that United Way has corporate partners who donate the hygiene products most of us take for granted. The project has financial support from the Community Foundation of Washington County, The Women's Giving Circle, the Kershner Sisters Foundation & Albert E. & Naomi B. Sinnisen Foundation, and a group of private donors, Guessford said.
United Way also has a hygiene mission partner in Children in Need of Washington County, which "serves hygiene needs of their clients as well. They contribute items when they have enough to spare, especially specialty items like lice kits."
But the agency needed a place to store items for the pantries, and a system for distributing them. And not just for the pantries themselves.
United Way's landlord offered space in the basement of its West Washington Street office building, which also offered a drive-through window where the products could be safely distributed.
"We are working on solving requests during the summer as well as during off-peak hours with our drive-through revamp," Guessford said.
But everything needed to be cleaned up, and the drive-through facility — unused for some time — needed some work to be functional.
It's Good 2 Give Back
Enter the Hagerstown office of JLG Industries.
JLG and Jerr-Dan, both subsidiaries of Oshkosh Corporation, have been serving communities through the "Good 2 Give Back" program since 2017.
"Good 2 Give Back was started in 2017 as a way to celebrate our team members’ passion for volunteering and also to help coordinate the vast volunteering opportunities in the areas where we operate," JLG spokesman Richard Wright said in a statement to The Herald-Mail.
"JLG and Jerr-Dan team members have always been focused on volunteering in the communities where we live, work and play."
For National Volunteer Week in late April, 15 JLG volunteers went to work at United Way to:
clean and paint the new hygiene storage facility
clean and repair the drive-through equipment in preparation for walk-up and drive-through services
install new shelving and storage solutions
itemize and stock new hygiene items including shampoo, body wash, deodorant, toothpaste, feminine products, pull-ups, lice kits and more
install a new hygiene closet at Smithsburg High School — a project instigated by the school's chapter of Students United
And they did it in two days — and they packed 50 "hygiene bags" for a drive-through distribution at another school.
Amplifying the impact
United Way isn't the only local agency JLG and Jerr-Dan serve. Between the companies, Wright said, 231 employees performed volunteer work at United Way and 14 other Washington County organizations, including:
Micah’s Backpack
Children in Need
Salvation Army
Pangborn Elementary School
The Center Rescue Mission
Holly Place
Habitat For Humanity Washington County
The Maryland Theatre
Brooke’s House
Lasting Change
Discovery Station
REACH Cold Weather Shelter
Leitersburg Ruritan
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Washington County
Good 2 Give Back "is a global celebration and effort for our company. The volunteer events extend to every location in the world where JLG and Jerr-Dan operate."
Wright said giving back to the community was a core principle of JLG founder John L. Grove, "and we’re proud to continue his legacy through volunteering."
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: When United Way needed help, JLG came to the rescue in Maryland
