The Grace Network provides the basics so students in need may flourish
It was only Monday and already Sarah Airola was bushed.
She'd spent the weekend coordinating, organizing and helping pack more than 50 boxes of winter clothing and hygiene products at her Glenview home to donate to Chicago schoolchildren.
"I'm exhausted," she said.
She and her husband, Ryan Airola, are the founders and respectively the president and vice president of The Grace Network. It's a new, all-volunteer nonprofit that collects and donates these items for schools to distribute to underprivileged students when they need them, often due to unstable home situations.
The Dec. 3-4 "Winter Refill Pack Event" was the nonprofit's second such drive, following a back-to-school collection this summer. The winter haul consisted of hats, gloves, socks, underwear, and dental and personal hygiene products.
Next spring, after receiving a restocking report from affiliated schools, organizers will do it again. The goal is three annual distributions. Eighty percent of those summer items got passed out within two months of receiving them.
Several factors influenced the origins of the nonprofit, which since its first board meeting as a 501(c)(3) on March 2 has partnered with more than 30 schools and helped 1,500 students facing housing instability. The main point is "trying to create social equity and diversity in the world," Airola said.
She has volunteered in the Chicago Public Schools, and is the board secretary for Erie Elementary Charter School in Humboldt Park. The Grace Network works mostly with CPS or charter schools such as the Noble charter network.
Being a volunteer in schools still reeling from COVID-19, Airola knew of teachers paying for toothbrushes, body wipes, socks and the like for students who needed them. She said many of the students served by her nonprofit are in temporary living situations. Others are in families suffering hardships such as fire, sickness, job loss or eviction.
Lacking basic necessities, the Airolas feel, is not conducive to academic growth.
The couple has children attending Pleasant Ridge Elementary and Springman Middle schools, and Sarah Airola is on Springman's committee of the Debra Gelfand Children's Foundation, which helps Glenview District 34 families in need.
"If we can do this in Glenview, why couldn't we replicate this on a broader basis?" Sarah Airola said. "We need to start supporting kids way earlier than we think if we want them to stay in the school system and feel they're supported.
The couple saw it as an opportunity to help on a basic level the students facing adversity. That's something Sarah Airola said she would never dream of, living with her three kids in the affluent suburb of Glenview.
On a personal note, Airola idolized her grandmother, Grace, who "typified what we wanted to do," she said.
In addition to those who've volunteered or donated supplies or funds to purchase them, other people have helped in different ways.
A local company donated clothes and washer and dryer sets to five different schools. A Boy Scout troop gathered 250 items. Glenbrook South High School's Titans Helping Titans group donated prom dresses and suits to 10 different high schools.
The Airolas formed a junior board of high school students to help support the nonprofit, whose growth may lead to renting warehouse space. There is a waitlist of schools wishing to partner with the group, but not yet funding to support them.
Since it is inevitably about education, the nonprofit also has been instructive in another way: exemplifying compassion.
"I really find it important to teach lessons to our kids that, hey, don't take this for granted and, more importantly, don't judge someone from another background, because you have no idea what they're up against," Sarah Airola said.