Athens Police Chief Floyd Johnson dropped off a diaper donation
ATHENS-Instead of badges, fire trucks, patrol cars and uniforms a group of students recently encouraged people to think about diapers when they thought about firefighters and police officers.
The Athens Mayor’s Youth Commission, comprised of 10th through 12th graders, held a donation challenge to support the Food Bank of North Alabama’s Diaper Drive. They asked donors to stop by City Hall and place diapers in either the Athens Fire and Rescue bin or Athens Police Department bin.
Students did not stop there, however.
Members of the Youth Commission who are also members of Athens High School’s National Honor Society worked together to host a drive at their school. Youth Commissioner and academic advisor Ethan Spickard brought a truckload of diapers to City Hall on Nov. 5.
Youth Commissioners and honor society students opted to split the donation between the departments.
Youth Commissioner and Ethan Spickard academic advisor with the truckload of diapers students collected
In addition, Youth Commissioners Cooper Cochran and Sam Sandy posted the challenge on their Facebook pages and set up another collection point at Comprehensive Primary and Urgent Care of Alabama. They also collected numerous packages of diapers that were split between police and fire.
Youth Commissioner Elizabeth Britnell from Athens Bible School collected several, and individual Youth Commissioners from Athens High, Athens Bible and Lindsay Lane dropped off diaper donations as well.
“Our youth are eager to contribute to our community if adults will give them the opportunity,” Athens Mayor Ronnie Marks said. “In Youth Commission we challenge them to be engaged and informed citizens who give back. I’m proud of their work with this project and how they took initiative to increase donations.”
Athens Police Chief Floyd Johnson also received a donation from a woman who heard about the challenge.
“She had several unused diapers and was glad they could go to help somebody else,” he said.
The Food Bank of North Alabama collects diapers throughout the year and distributes them to its network of 250 nonprofit partners, who then share them with families in need. According to its website, its agencies are approached for diaper requests because “diapers are often an expensive line item in the budget of needy families.”
As of Monday morning (Nov. 8), Youth Commissioners had collected about 65 to 70 packages of diapers.
