During this summer, the Ross Medical Education Center campus in Huntsville, Alabama collected donations of individual bottles of water for a local homeless shelter, Downtown Rescue Mission. During the heat of summer in particular, water is very important to keep people hydrated and healthy. Often those that don’t have a home also lack this basic necessity. So, the campus staff decided that this would be a practical and simple way to support and give a little help to those in their community that are struggling.
By the end of their drive, the campus ended up being able to donate over 700 individual bottles of water! The Ross staff, faculty, and students felt that this project was very rewarding and enjoyed the opportunity to be able to help the homeless in their area have clean drinking water during the hot summer months. In fact, the Downtown Rescue Mission said that the water bottles donated by the campus should last them from two to three months.
“When I went to drop off the bottles of water at the shelter, I had a gentleman walk up to me and shake my hand to tell me thank you,” shared Elizabeth Caudle, instructor for the Medical Insurance Billing and Office Administration program. “It was a small gesture, but from the look in his eyes he was very happy and grateful. The staff that helped unload the water was very surprised at how much we had collected and said that this would be very helpful for the homeless in our area. During this I realized just how lucky I am with what I have. It is very easy to take things as simple as having clean water to drink for granted. Knowing the water we donated would help so many people have access to the water made the whole project worth it. I plan on trying to do more for the homeless in our area with future students.”
The campus also hopes that the people that get the water bottles are able to refill them safely when needed so that they can continue to have clean water to drink. Staff, faculty, and students all hope to continue to help the homeless and Downtown Rescue Mission through other efforts like volunteering at the food back and soup kitchen.