From Blankets to Sustainable Help
When Lauren Adajar, now 15, was challenged two years ago in eighth grade by her teacher Ashley Ingle to come up with a project to make a difference, she came up with a blanket drive.
“The topic I looked into was the housing crisis,” she remembers. “I ended up doing some research and eventually what I came up with was a blanket drive, which looking back seems like a simplified version of trying to make a change. It’s very short term and not super sustainable but I saw a need and wanted to try and fill it,” she said.
Adajar distributed the blankets she had collected, along with clothing and hygiene items, through a RISE event on 2nd Street. “That was the first time I looked poverty in the eye,” she told Our Town Reno during a recent interview. “I spent several hours talking to this line of people that stretched well beyond the end of the block. I heard their stories. I was able to make connections. I was feeling completely overwhelmed. After the distribution, I sat in my room crying for an hour because I couldn’t handle what I had seen. I think that experience was important because it was the first exposition to this topic and these people. Poverty in general is a very hidden issue. I made the realization I wanted to do more. It shook me to my core.”
Adajar has now teamed up with a school mate at Davidson Academy, Megha Tenneti, 14, who is a 9th grader. Both had older siblings at the prestigious school for highly gifted students.
Together they have created a Davidson Academy chapter of MEDLIFE, an international organization with roots in Peru, which provides medicine, education and development for low income families around the world. Adajar’s sister is part of the UNR chapter.
Tenneti’s personal drive to help the poor started in India where she visited her family as a child. “You go on the streets and there’s just rows of homeless people. It was really heartbreaking to see. I thought I couldn’t do anything,” she said.
Now she does her research and makes frequent presentations. “We have Powerpoints and lectures to educate people on the plethora of issues surrounding the cycle of poverty and that way everyone has an idea of how we can volunteer the best we can. We plan on becoming more action based after the pandemic starts going down a little,” Tenneti said.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, our interview was done over Zoom.
Inspired by Others, Seeking to Create a Youth Movement
Tenneti was also inspired by another school mate who started an organization to combat menstrual inequalities called Red Equity. In Reno, she also volunteers with the Food Bank of Northern Nevada and RISE.
“Society treats [the poor] like they are … trash. It’s disgusting. They’re just normal people with experiences and we want to connect with them,” Tenneti said during our Zoom interview. “I wanted to focus on getting rid of those stigmas so that people can be comfortable and not have stigmas against a population. They are people and we can’t dehumanize them. We can’t treat them as less than. We need to help them to create an environment of equality and equity. We need to look at ourselves as a community rather than ignoring them.”
Moving forward, the two teenage students want to turn their initiative into a movement using social media and in person events. Adajar has been using the #spreadthewarmth hashtag.
They want to unite students their age, “high schoolers who maybe don’t know the realities that some people are forced to face but want to know what lies beyond their bubble of privilege” Adajar said.
“A lot of people are scared to reach out to local shelters,” Tenneti said of what blocks some high schoolers from also making an effort.
Tenneti is also thinking of reaching out to students struggling locally, even more acutely during the pandemic.
“We’re so privileged to go to this school and have this education that I think our whole goal is to basically educate ourselves, and how people our age, live in motels and don’t have access to proper education, have the resources they need. We’re getting out of our bubble. We need to break out of it and recognize everyone,” she said. “We should also create safe environments where young students can get the resources they need.”
Right now, they are also organizing a new blanket drive, and even ready to pick up blankets from people wanting to donate directly. They are open for messages on their Instagram which is called damedlife.
“There’s a long way to go, and we’re not trying to be like know it alls,” Adajar said to conclude our interview. “We definitely don’t know everything and there’s things we will never know from our place. We’re trying to do the best we can to help people, to provide sustainable support and not make it a one and done situation.”