Pub 5 2021 Issue1

counselor at a local elementary school. We found out that they had partnered with the Assistance League in the past for a similar program that helped supply children with coats and boots. Armed with this information and a plan, Chad applied for the grant. Fortunately, we received the grant, and on top of that, I had solicited a few family members to donate to the cause. The school provided a copy of the form they had used before to get information from parents; we made appropriate changes for our own use, and my sister, who speaks Spanish, translated the form into Spanish as well. Once we received all of the completed forms from the school counselor, I created a spreadsheet to better organize our shopping list and kept all the original forms as a backup. Chad and I sat down with a computer and a credit card and picked out clothing for 34 children based on information gathered from parents. We had our 9-year-old niece help give advice about the basic clothing girls would like (black leggings and “jeggings”) and what the boys at her school wore (jeans). Each kid got two pairs of pants. With socks and underwear, we just picked the colors within the size groups that were most widely available to attempt to keep things as “fair” as we could possibly be. I never thought sitting down to purchase large volumes of children’s clothes would be so gratifying, but each time the delivery truck pulled up with part of our order, we were filled with joy. We ordered giant Ziploc bags from Amazon to make sorting easier. Finally, I had to physically go into Target to get 34 $25 gift cards. And while I was there, I picked out 34 double packets of cute cloth face masks in kid sizes as well. It took about a week for everything to arrive, and then we made a date night out of sorting clothes, forms, masks, and gift cards into bags. We boxed everything up as well as donations we had received of backpacks and various sized boots. On a Tuesday morning in mid- December, we met the school counselor at the back of the school to unload all of the boxes. Everything was delivered just in time to distribute the packages to the children to take home before Christmas break. All in all, it took a very small effort on our part, and not very much money when you consider how many families were helped. I’d like to hope for at least this semester of the school year, those children and their parents had one less thing to worry about during an already very difficult year. That contribution to our community’s health and well-being is more than worth any effort or dollar amount that was spent. Have an Idea for an FMPC Grant? UAFP encourages our members to consider applying for one of these grants awarded annually in the Spring. Applications are due each year in February and need to focus on one of the following three areas: • Student and/or Resident project: Focuses on education, research, and/or humanitarian opportunities for students (high school, undergraduate, or medical students) and/or Family Medicine residents. • Member Outreach project: Focuses on education, research, and/or humanitarian opportunities that target AAFP Family Physician members. • Public Health project: Focuses on the health of families and communities by promoting healthy lifestyles; conducting research and/or providing education for disease and injury prevention; and/or projects that are humanitarian or service in nature that improve the health of individuals or communities. Please reach out to UAFP with any questions at 801-736-0722. 25 |