On April 27 a team of 30 students under the supervision of nine adult volunteers worked tirelessly to clean, organize and implement a “Community Closet” program at the Lodi Family Center. Student volunteers from the Jobs for Ohio’s Graduates program assisted Hannah Osborn with her desire to help the Lodi community. Hannah has always wanted to implement a clothing outreach for families in need. She approached Rebecca Rak at the Lodi Family Center and together they were able to come up with a plan to bring the community closet from concept to completion.

Rebecca welcomed Hannah to team up with LFC as the clothing manager. The center had already received several donations that needed to be compiled, cleaned and organized. As this task was an overwhelming task for one young girl and her mother, they approached Jennifer Brenner and the Cloverleaf JOG program for assistance. With the approval of the Cloverleaf administration and the donation of transportation along with LFC’s generous donation of lunch, the day was a tremendous success.

In addition to the closet clean-out, students also took on additional tasks that needed to be completed around the center. Things such as cleaning the old gym floor, organizing the personal care pantry, the food pantry, and exterior grounds maintenance could only be accomplished with a large group of people working together.

“I hope to make this an annual event,” said Mrs. Brenner. “One of the best ways for students to learn job and interpersonal skills is by participating in service learning projects like this.”