Five Hills royalty work to combat homelessness
Special to Leader-Press
Nearly 300 Copperas Cove school-age children were classified as homeless during the past school year according to state guidelines. The Copperas Cove Five Hills royalty are stepping out and loading up to combat this economic crisis for local families.
The titleholders laced up their walking shoes to draw attention to homelessness in the Stomp Out Homelessness 5K Run/Walk sponsored by The Refuge Corporation on Saturday.
Junior Miss Five Hills Hayley Sawyer selected helping the homeless as her platform of service during her year-long reign.
“The homeless walk was very inspiring seeing all of the volunteers and community coming together to help the homeless,” Sawyer said. “This cause is very important to me because we should all do our part to help those in need. This 5K was a very fun way to get everyone excited about doing just that and I was happy to be a part of it.”
Approximately 400 people participated in the run/walk. Money raised from the event will be used to provide shelter for the homeless.
The event followed on the heels of the 4th Annual CCISD Laundry Day in which the royalty washed, dried, and sorted more than 2,000 pounds of laundry that were donated to Communities in Schools to restock each schools’ clothing closets to ensure students in-need had clothing for the 2019-2020 school year.
Sawyer, with the help of the royalty, recently held a non-perishable food drive at Walmart collecting more than 10 grocery carts of food and supplies for the Copperas Cove Soup Kitchen. She has also gotten 30 bags of mulch donated to plant three gardens at the soup kitchen and donated $750 to the soup kitchen from money she raised at her stand on Lemonade Day.
Junior Mister Five Hills Jackson Gibbs also participated in the walk and is working to collect non-perishable food items for homeless students in his school.
"The walk made me feel good because lots of people want to help the homeless,” the second grader said. “Everyone should have a place to live and food to eat."
Gibbs’s platform of service during his year-long reign is Blessings in a Backpack where he works to provide meals for the weekend for students-in need when they cannot eat at school. He recently donated $865 to his service project to purchase backpacks and non-perishable food items. The money was raised through Lemonade Day thanks to a dollar-for-dollar match from Bush’s Chicken where he hosted his stand. Gibbs is hosting a food collection drive at Walmart in July and will host the 2nd Annual Lil’ Dawg and Lil’ Lady Dawg Homecoming Dance in September with all proceeds benefitting homeless students.