A high school teacher in Utah who is getting married next month has decided not to register for wedding gifts. Instead, she’s asking for warm coats for her homeless and under-privileged students.
Rickee Stewart recently learned that her community of West Jordan, Utah, has a large homeless problem, including among the students at Copper Hills High School, where she teaches.
At least 110 of the students in her school are considered homeless, as are 2,000 more across the school district.
So she and her students started a food pantry, to which students can donate non-perishable food and toiletries items any from which student can help themselves, no questions asked.
But Stewart wanted to do more, because kids need more than just food to go to school; they need clothes and school supplies, too.
“And when we decided to get married, I thought there was probably something else that we could do to help. And that’s where the idea came from,” Stewart told CTV News Channel Tuesday.
So she created a “bridal registry” on DonorsChoose, a website that lets teachers and classrooms crowdfund for supplies.
She asked for 15 backpacks and 15 pairs of shoes and was stunned to find the request was filled almost immediately by complete strangers.
Stewart sent out her wedding invitations with an insert asking guests to donate to the student registry in lieu of gifts. But the donations came in so quickly, her funding goal was met before her guests even returned the invitations.
She has since created another registry that is being filled by generous strangers from across the U.S. and the world.
“At this point, we are going to be pretty close to getting over 1,200 coats for the kids in our district. It’s astounding,” she said.
Stewart says it’s “insane” how generous donors have been.
“The public response has been just heartening. It’s been really, really nice.”
