Burton View

Community closet: staff and students helping students




Stephanie Lane and Chloe Clarambeau, both seniors at Kearsley high school, are part of a community service project intended to help ensure other students at Kearsley have what they need to feel comfortable and accepted at the school. Photo by Tanya Terry

Stephanie Lane and Chloe Clarambeau, both seniors at Kearsley high school, are part of a community service project intended to help ensure other students at Kearsley have what they need to feel comfortable and accepted at the school. Photo by Tanya Terry

BURTON — After some Kearsley High School student council members attended a meeting at a Grand Blanc school and toured the community closet there, they couldn’t wait to open a similar room for students at their own school.

Free hygiene items such as toothpaste, deodorant, floss, mouthwash, shaving cream and razors are available to students who don’t have them.

Clothing items such as shirts, boots, shoes, socks, underwear, gloves and coats are also available in a variety of sizes. Students will also be able to wash clothes at school.

“This is our first year having the community closet, and so far, we’ve had a good amount of participation,” Chloe Clarambeau, 17, who is a senior at Kearsley High.

“What’s really helped is the communications and the advertising,” Clarambeau added. “As you walk through the school you see posters and flyers.”

Stephanie Lane, 17, who is also a senior at Kearsley, thinks the number of community closet users is still growing.

The community closet at the high school is strictly for Kearsley High students, and the students can visit it any time during the day after getting their teachers to let them in. There are sling bags with the Kearsley logo on them in the room for students to fill with whatever they may need. They can use the sling bags as backpacks after leaving the community closet.

Many of the items in the community closet were donations from staff. Many teachers donated clothing and hygiene items over the summer. Some teachers offered extra credit to students who donated new hygiene products. The clothing is lightly used and has been washed.

Clarambeau said she sees students from a wide income range at her school.

“At a lot of schools, I would say there is kind of a consistency,” she said. “But, at Kearsley you see some families that are really well off. With Schools of Choice, we have a lot of students from inner-city Flint. At our school, I think there is a need for the community closet, especially because we have so many kids that are Schools of Choice who don’t have what a lot of other kids have here.”

“The closet gives everyone a chance,” Lane said.

“We’re not judging,” Clarambeau said. “Everyone is welcome.”

One of the newest additions to the community closet is a washer and dryer has been added through student council.

“There was piping we found in our room,” Lane said. “Through a Lowe’s grant we got the cabinets to put in the closet to hold the items. We also have a washer and dryer that are going to be available to students that might not have access to that in their homes.”

The washer and dryer are in the student council room, across the hallway from the community closet. Teachers also let students into this room who need access to a washer and dryer.

Lane said the community closet and other offerings at Kearsley adds to the school’s unity and makes everyone feel like a family.