Club Project Spotlight: Temple

I was fortunate enough to participate in a terrific service project during a club visit to Temple last year. The work the Temple Club does is in itself amazing, but considering the fact that several other organizations each do a portion of a much larger project, the results are truly incredible. And you can do this in your community, too.

Project Apple Tree, a faith-based program in Belton, provides hundreds of fully packed back-to-school boxes for underprivileged children in their area each year. The Temple Club provides the hygiene bags: gallon-sized resealable bags stuffed with full-sized shampoo, soap, washcloths, and even a card from the library. But it doesn’t stop there. Each child also receives a complete set of school supplies according to grade, a complete set of new clothes to wear the first day of school (sized for the specific child!), a dental care kit with their own full-sized toothbrush, and a personalized note wishing them—by name—a terrific day. When they pick up the package on the appointed day, each child can receive a back-to-school haircut and, sometimes, even a child ID fingerprinting courtesy of the Belton Police Department. Each of these items is provided or packaged by a different organization in the Temple/Belton community!

It was fantastic to see hundreds of these huge boxes lining a church gymnasium the night I got to help the Temple ladies create the hygiene bags, but I was touched to my very soul when Jeannette Kelley, Project Apple Tree’s founder, stood to explain everything that was in the boxes. Big ole Martha Hofmeister tears filled my eyes as I imagined some fresh faces all ready for a great year at school and all the volunteers throughout the community who cared and loved enough to put those boxes together to make a child feel special.

And as I said, this can be replicated in your community. Coordinating several different organizations to create such a huge project isn’t any small task, but you might consider starting small and branching out a little each year. If you have other Altrusa Clubs close, consider partnering with them to double your service power. Planning is key. This project is an example of “thinking big,” and thinking big is how we grow Altrusa.

Beth Blair
Governor

If you would like to donate to Project Apple Tree, send your check to Helping Hands Ministry, PO Box 1923, Belton, TX 76513. Make out the check to Helping Hands and write "Apple Tree" on the note or memo line.