Souris students help each other with 'grab and go' hygiene kits

Some leadership students at Souris Regional High School have created "grab and go" bags with personal care products, including soap, shampoo, razors and toothpaste. 

The kits are available for pick-up in the school's bathrooms. 

Grade 12 student Julie Bruce says their leadership class challenged them to find a way to give back to the community. Some did food drives and clothing drives. Bruce and her partner came up with the idea to have people donate items that they would put together in the kits and place in the bathrooms for grade 7 to 12 students.

"I know myself that not all people in our school have the privilege to buy these products at home and have them all the time, and it's hard like shavers can be expensive and so can shampoo and conditioner. So I thought we should just make this available."

Bruce said they've been replenishing the kits as they run low, a sign that people have been using them.

"In high school and junior high, you're kind of more self-conscious about yourself and your peers and you're hitting puberty and it's the time of growth," she said. 

I think the students have gained a greater sense of empathy and watching things that are happening around the world and wanted to feel as though they could help someone that they knew.— Karen Aucoin-Smith

"So I think it would be embarrassing for them if they didn't have it. So we just want everybody to feel like they can fit in. And it's not embarrassing to get these … from the bathrooms."

Karen Aucoin-Smith, who teaches leadership at the school, said she was impressed with all the different projects.

"I think the students have gained a greater sense of empathy and watching things that are happening around the world and wanted to feel as though they could help someone that they knew."

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