Stacy Rothenberger recently took a family trip.
It wasn’t a vacation to a tropical isle or a scenic train ride across the United States. It was a short ride downtown to Lower Wacker Drive in downtown Chicago, where the 13-year-old and her parents, Connie and Richard Rothenberger, hand-delivered 75 lunches to the homeless.
The good deed was a requirement for Stacy to celebrate her bat mitzvah at her local temple, but the eye-opening experience also was an inspiration that sent her and a close friend, Laura Cargerman, also 13, on a special mission to help the underprivileged.
“The saddest thing I ever heard was a man who said a cup of coffee down there was like a steak,” Stacy said. “I never forgot that.”
Stacy and Laura, both of whom attend Temple Chai in Long Grove, decided to organize their project to help the homeless called “Necessities for Life.”
By soliciting donations from family members and friends at school and temple, they collected more than 300 personal items for the homeless for the Northwest Cook County Public Action to Deliver Shelter program.
Hair brushes, toothpaste and toothbrushes, razors, shaving cream and shampoo are just a few of the items collected from donors in the northwest suburbs.
The program shelters, according to executive director Cheryl Studebaker, close for the warmer months, leaving many people without shelter.
“No one will starve, but unfortunately they’ll be sleeping in tents or renting rooms,” Studebaker said. “Our main goal is to keep folks from freezing and starving to death during the worst months of the year.”
By organizing a toiletries drive instead of a food drive, Laura and Stacy are hoping they will be providing some basic necessities that may help the people land jobs.
“They spend their money on food,” Laura said. “But if they have a job opportunity and they go unshaven, they’re not going to get the job.”
After the collecting was over, the girls took the items to LaSalle-Talman Bank in Buffalo Grove, a dropoff center for the program. Upon arriving with bags of donations, they were presented a certificate of appreciation from the program and a letter of thanks from the bank with a $25 gift certificate to open an account.
PHOTO: Laura Cargerman (left) and Stacy Rothenberger, both 13, look over toiletries for the homeless at LaSalle-Talman Bank in Buffalo Grove. The items will be distributed by the PADS program. Tribune photo by H.T. Vu.
