HOMELESS
properly get the word out. There
HELPERS
A STORY OF HOW ORDINARY
PEOPLE OF THE COMMUNITY
RISE UP TO SUPPORT OTHERS
YENAH PARK - AUTHOR
MAY 28, 2021
January of 2019. Imagine a
fifteen year old sophomore
during Mustang Academic
Period (MAP) blindly wandering
through the business hall for the
first time since sophomore
orientation. I had no idea what I
was doing, but I had made a
promise to my older sister to
seek out Randall C Kammerman.
After shuffling by several
classrooms and finally finding
the correct one, I timidly walked
inside and waited.
“Hello Ms. Park, what can I do
for you?”
“I want to join DECA.”
Little did my sophomore self
know that those five words
would absolutely transform my
life. I was immediately handed
papers and packets of tips and
tricks to presenting well, how to
impress judges, and vocabulary
sheets of business terms I had
never even heard of before. I
immediately wondered if this
was a smart choice I was
making, but I reluctantly chose to
sign up for the last competition
before state. I was insanely
nervous as I went in to compete
for the first time, butterflies
erupting in my stomach and my
brain wondering why I had
chosen to do this. However, I
was miraculously able to pull off
a third place win! With
newfound confidence and
motivation in myself, I signed up
for the state competition where
I met so many new people and
learned so much. After placing
fourth in my category, with only
the top three moving to
nationals, Kammerman
graciously took a chance on a
dumb sophomore and placed
me on a project so that I would
have the opportunitiy to
experience ICDC (nationals) in
Orlando, Florida. It was then
that I met Fernanda Caceres,
someone who has absolutely
changed my life for the better.
In between our competition slots
at ICDC, our group traveled to
Disney World and Universal
Studios where the then DECA
President told me I should apply
to be an officer. I was
dumbstruck. It was my third time
competing and I still had no clue
how DECA worked. But by some
miracle, they convinced me to
apply, and I was chosen to be
Herriman’s VP of Hospitality and
Marketing.
I can confidently say that being
in this position for the past two
years has been one of the most
magnifying and rewarding
positions of my life. This year, I
wanted to organize a service
project for my school and the
community. After participating in
several service opportunities
with our district’s Principal’s
Pantry, it came to my attention
that our school had a decent
number of students who were
homeless. My fellow peers and
friends whose circumstances I
had no idea about. Inspired by
this and wanting to help, our
advisors and team decided that
we wanted to start a coat drive.
Collecting any and every coat
we could, regardless of size or
designs. Our advisors had
previously worked with the
organization Family Promise,
and we worked to team up with
them once more. Our original
intention of collecting a few
coats to give to the Road Home
took off in a way that we were
not anticipating. We needed to
NEVER TOO WARM
DECA & FBLA MEMBERS SORTING COATS
was the process of designing
new posters and fliers that we
hung in all areas throughout the
school. We made the slogan
“No Cold Kids,” and promoted
this everywhere. Announcements
are spoken every morning over
the school intercom where we
encouraged students to bring in
any sized coats over our
fundraiser’s timeline. We also
reached out to all of our local
social media pages to reach a
larger demographic of people.
This included Herriman’s
community Facebook page as
well as the Herriman City and
our high school’s Instagram
pages. By taking these steps, we
were able to reach several more
people then we would’ve
without. Then the donations
started coming in … and they
didn’t stop. With our project
growing so rapidly, we were
interviewed by different news
stations; this includes stations of
KSL, Deseret News, as well as the
Jordan School District Board.
They conducted interviews of
some of our team members to
learn more about this project. It
was very interesting to see how
it was all falling into place.
Seeing the support that we had
NOTHING WASTED
TRASH BAGS FILLED WITH COLLECTED COATS
for our coat drive helped us
realize that what we were doing
didn’t have to stop at just our
school. We had the chance of
making a difference everywhere
in the district. And that’s what we
were going to do.
Once we saw the potential of
this project, we knew we needed
some sort of incentive or
motivator for people to bring in
more coats. We reached out to
businesses and were able to
create a collaboration with the
nearby Scheels sporting goods
company in Sandy, Utah. Having
a partnership with such a large
corporation was a very
significant part of our project.
Scheels agreed to donate $25
gift cards for each person that
brought in a coat in new or
gently used shape. In the end
they ended up donating
thousands of dollars in gift
cards! Our fundraiser went on
for around a month and a half,
with us raising 1,100 coats for the
Family Promise Organization. As
a group we sorted all the coats
and hauled several truckloads of
them over to our district
warehouse to be distributed. I
was able to then take these to
the distribution locations and
see the people I was helping.
Being able to see the difference
you make firsthand is the most
rewarding thing you can
experience. To think that I was
experiencing oblivion to my
peers' circumstances makes me
more motivated to find ways to
help others. It’s heartbreaking to
think that several students at
Herriman don’t know about this
either. However, I was in shock
and awe at how willing people
were to give back to a
community of people that
needed them. It goes to show
that when there is a need,
people will always rise up to
meet and exceed expectations.
While it is important for us to be
thankful for the circumstances
we have been given, it is also
important to seek opportunities
to serve. Being able to look
outside of yourself and finding
ways of helping others will raise
our community for us and future
generations to come.