Teen Closet

With the help of our elementary school coordinator Anne Formato, President Jaime DiTata and our two student volunteers from NHS packed much needed hygiene items for our five elementary schools!

Are you looking to contribute to the Closet? New, unopened items (no samples please) can be dropped off at Poughkeepsie High School only!

We are so thankful to have been the August grantees for Poughkeepsie Awesome Foundation's micro-grant program! 🎉

Our awesome project provides students in the Poughkeepsie City School District with the basic necessities of personal hygiene products so that every student in the city of Poughkeepsie can come to school feeling healthy and ready to learn. Teen Closet operates a full stocked closet at Poughkeepsie High School and a satellite closet at Poughkeepsie Middle School, while providing 2 bulk-deliveries of items to all district elementary schools in the fall and spring.

With the COVID-19 pandemic, our hygiene supplies have dwindled as our need has increased. Many of our families have low-income jobs. The families tend to be large and simply stocking up the pantry can be an impossible financial hurdle, causing person hygiene and self care items to be deemed a luxury. Providing personal hygiene, is a small gesture of kindness that promotes self-dignity through cleanliness.

The impact of Teen Closet includes providing 2,500 hygiene products, clothing items, and school supplies to students throughout the district in the 2021-2022 school year. In addition, Teen Closet creates back-to-school bags for each Poughkeepsie Middle and High School classroom, containing important hygiene items and also raising awareness of the organization's existence and accessibility. Teen Closet also hosts a Penny Social for seniors pursuing higher education in which shower caddies stocked with hygiene supplies and several large gift baskets are given to Poughkeepsie High School seniors. As the elementary schools do not have closets, Teen Closet provides requested hygiene items to the students twice per year; last year's contribution totaled $3,000 worth of hygiene items

Poughkeepsie City School District’s full day pre-K program is expanding in 2022-23 to help meet the needs of the community and registration is ongoing. Visit poughkeepsieschools.org/registration to begin the process. For more info: bit.ly/pcsdPre-K22-23

Great summer opportunity!

So excited to have been a part of the PHS Fine Arts Festival this past week. Tabling events like these help us to spread awareness about our mission. Our prize wheel was a big hit! And the art work was incredible! Great work, Pioneers!

Teen Closet would like to send a heartfelt thank you to Cate Bardin. Her mom, Joanne, was our school nurse at PHS and a member of the Teen Closet team. Last week Cate made an amazing donation to the Teen Closet in memory of her mom. We miss you Joanne! Thanks, Cate, for honoring your mom in this way. 💕

Teen Closet was excited to once again be a part of the PHS College Signing Day on May 3rd. We provided 75 shower caddies full of hygiene products for students going off to college next year. We would also like to thank the teachers and staff who donated items for our Penny Social Raffle baskets. The students had a great time and truly appreciated the gifts and prizes.

The Boys & Girls Club of Poughkeepsie has a new after school program location at Morse Elementary! Morse Elementary students grades 3-5 will be able to take part in all of the fun and exciting activities we offer right at their school! Program begins May 11. Visit https://conta.cc/38Qi50y to register!

Teen Closet would like to thank Vassar College Community Works for selecting us for the second year in a row as one of their grant recipients. Their support has enabled us to take a more active role in the PCSD elementary schools and Early Learning Center, providing basic hygiene supplies and clothing that children can access in school to support their health and learning.

Last week a PHS student I did not know came to my classroom to donate a bag of hygiene items to the Teen Closet. This too is education. 💕

Teen Closet would like to thank all the individuals and organizations in our community who have helped us fulfill our mission of providing hygiene and essential care products to students in the Poughkeepsie City School District. In 2021 we were able to extend our services to all of the PCSD elementary schools and the Early Learning Center as well as provide gift cards for students whose families experienced house fires or other acute needs. Thanks to all of our 2021 donors: Leola Ruffin-McPhee, Vassar College Community Works, Lynn Jackson, Megan Allen, Noelle Willis, Tovah Goldfarb, Holly Dunn, Christopher King, Joyette Walton, Selina Barrington, Jamie Sheehan, Endora Shropshire, Erin McCloskey, Rae Slingerland, Yasmin Nijem, students of Davison Dorm at Vassar College, Twisted Soul, Stewart's Shops, Target, Stop n’Shop, PHS departments and admin (for the Penny Social baskets), Robert Wood, First Baptist Church, Beulah Baptist Church, and the Jeannette F. Schlobach Fund of the Community Foundations of the Hudson Valley.