ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY, Md. — A couple in Anne Arundel County is expanding their nonprofit's reach ahead of the new school year, hosting a community collection drive for hygiene products to donate to local students.
Dacota Allen and Isabella Privitera launched Allen's Outreach in February to collect and donate hygiene products to local elementary, middle, and high schools.
"We came up with Allen's Outreach kind of as homage to my grandfather, our community work, and that's kind of how it started," Allen said.
Couple launches Anne Arundel County nonprofit to provide hygiene products to local students
Allen's relationship with his grandfather, who grew up in Anne Arundel County, inspired him to get more involved in the community.
Privitera said hygiene is a need that often goes unaddressed.
"We found that hygiene is something that's often overlooked. There's plenty of programs that donate clothing and food and shelter sometimes, but often, the hygiene gets kind of forgotten about, and you're having children go to school without having had proper hygiene, and they're getting bullied and everything like that, so we really saw it as a need and wanted to kind of fill it," Privitera said.
Since launching earlier this year, the couple says the community response has been strong.
"Everybody's been really supportive, and we know we're super excited to continue this organization," Allen said.
Now, the couple wants to expand their impact across Anne Arundel County. They are hosting a collection drive for anyone who wants to donate hygiene products to help students ahead of the new school year.
"Just wanna be able to master this, which is giving back to those specific classrooms, so specific elementary, middle school, high schools, and then hopefully expand from there," Allen said.
Privitera said the goal goes beyond just supplying products.
"We want to get more schools around the county. We want to be able to keep products there so that they can be handed out on a regular basis for these children who are coming out of school and having hygiene impact their learning. We also wanna talk about the emotional impact that I could have or not being able to have these necessities in your house and then having to go to school and have other kids kind of tease you and everything like that we want to normalize why maybe certain people don't have these things and hope that kids can be kind to each other and make it less common for people not to have this kind of stuff," Privitera said.
The collection drive will be held Saturday, Aug. 15, at the Wilson Grove Community Center from 2-8 p.m.
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