High school students donate to Riverside’s homeless

Despite a restricted school year and online-only meetings, several high school students in Moreno Valley came together to aid the homeless in their county.

In a campaign called, “You Matter To Me,” approximately 80 junior and senior students from Valley View High School’s chapter of the National Honor Society, or NHS, collected non-perishable food goods and hygienic products and donated them to the Office of Homeless Solutions in Riverside.

Hafsa Kaka, officer of homeless solutions, said the donations will be taken to the City of Riverside Access Center located on Hulen Place this Friday.

“The office of homeless solutions is incredibly grateful to the students and leadership at Valley View High School,” Kaka said. “It means so much to the individuals experiencing homeless that they receive these critical items for hygiene during this pandemic.”

Spanish teacher Silvia Rogers and her daughter, English teacher Sabrina Wilcox, co-advise the NHS chapter and its activities over the school year.

“The project You Matter To Me is for students to realize they are here to help others,” Rogers said.

She continued that in order for these students to retain membership in the NHS, they must maintain a high grade point average and keep a log of community service hours throughout their junior and senior years.

“There is a maximum amount of hours they can earn from this project and I told them that anything else they donate will be from the bottom of their heart,” Rogers said. “There are students who brought so much more than what was expected.”

To remain distanced, students individually gathered items and dropped them off at the school property by themselves or with family members last week.