Youth creating summer kits for the North Bay homeless

The kits will be handed out Wednesday at the Gathering Place

At 14-years-old Chloe Scriven has already heard plenty of excuses and the disconnect tone after being hung up on.

She’s left messages and not received return calls.

But she and her two sisters pursued their campaign to create summer kits for the homeless.

The girls’ mother, Micheline Turner, who is also the volunteer coordinator at Gathering Place, said it was a project that kept her kids from being bored this summer and put their time and efforts to good use.

Within a couple of weeks the girls had made almost 150 cooler bags equipped with various essential items like sanitary pads, toothbrush and toothpaste, Band-Aids, disinfect wipes, gauze, cotton balls, water bottle, hair comb and a tarp.

Chloe said her two sisters, eleven-year-old Olivia and 10-year-old Emma, used the Gathering Place as their home base.

They disassembled the winter kits, created new summer kits and called local businesses asking for donations.

The girls purchased extra items to distribute next week. Each client can take one special item between towels, flip-flops, underwear, ponchos and a hairbrush.

The packs also include enough feminine hygiene products to last a woman the remaining of the summer.

The bags are being handed out this week to clients of the Gathering Place.

“These people are constantly being told to leave places, here they’re not a nuisance, we want to make them feel valued,” Turner said.

She said numbers have steadily been rising with more than 200 lunches being served within two hours on an average day.

Turner said she was surprised at the response of one particular hotel.

She said they offered to donate new shampoos, conditioners and lotions, however when they opened the box they were used products.

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