End the Year with Cheer: Bare aware, donating underwear to the homeless

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - To help End the Year with Cheer, I started a program called Bare Aware: Underwear for the Homeless.

Every time we speak with the shelters around Anchorage we are told that underwear is a big need. With the help of donations from friends and viewers, we were able to cobble together about $500. Every penny of that money went to purchasing undergarments.

After leaving the store, it was a short drive over to Brother Francis Shelter where we met up with Lisa Aquino, the CEO of Catholic Social Services, to present her with our donation. Aquino was grateful to receive the donation.

As I mentioned earlier we hear about the need for underwear quite often but Aquino did a great job of explaining just what donations like this can mean to those experiencing homelessness.

“Well, you know, I think it just goes to all of us are people, we’re all humans on this earth and we need underwear and throughout the year you know folks are so generous they will clean out their closets, they will bring us their jackets and pants, and we need those and we are so grateful for them but most people don’t donate underwear, right? But it’s something that we all need and all the people staying here need and so the gift of new underwear, I can’t tell you how much dignity that gives to every person here to be able to have a clean pair of underwear that’s theirs and like, it’s small, but it means so much,” says Aquino.

Hopefully, this donation can, in some small way, help bring a little dignity and joy to someone in need as we here at Alaska’s News Source go looking to help End The Year With Cheer.

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