Local woman helping ensure local kids won’t go without

“It’s about hygiene and morale”

Sometimes it’s the things you don’t see that can make a big difference. In Colorado, there are approximately 10,000 children who go to school most days not wearing underwear. Some of those kids live in Gunnison County. It is a burden on the morale of the kids and a sign of financial struggles for the families.

Local businesswoman Tracy Hastings is trying to make a difference with those kids. She is organizing the Crested Butte effort to donate underwear for kids in need. Under the auspices of a non-profit organization based in Denver called “Underwearness,” Hastings has enlisted the kindergarteners and first graders in Daisy Troop #4214 to help spearhead the effort.
“My husband Justin saw a story on the organization on 9News and he told me about it,” explained Hastings. “He said he knew it would hit my heart. So I went to the Internet to find out more and he was right. I ended up talking to the founder of the group and I was crying my eyes out when I heard some of the stories.”
So Hastings and the Daisy Troopers have put out collection boxes around Crested Butte and Mt. Crested Butte. They are located at Clark’s Market, KBUT, Paradise Pre-school and Stepping Stones. In Mt. Crested Butte the boxes can be found at the Avalanche Restaurant and Treasury Liquors, the store owned by Tracy and Justin.
“We will be keeping all the donations local,” Hastings said. “I’ve learned that resort-mountain counties like ours have recently seen something like a 22 percent increase in the poverty rate across Colorado. Gunnison County is no exception.
The Gunnison County Department of Health and Human Services has said they could use this kind of donation and so that’s where we will take them.”
According to Hastings’ research, Colorado has one of the fastest rates of growing child poverty. As of 2008, 15 percent, or 179,000, of Colorado children were estimated to be living in poverty. Of the 11,061 people who were accessing homeless services in January of 2009, 2,941 were children under the age of 18.
“Once Justin and I became aware of the organization and the benefits to children, there was never a question in our minds whether we should do something—it was what do we do and when do we do it,” Hastings said.
Hastings said after researching the idea, the original thought was to take on the project as a family charity project. “But we felt it could be a good thing for the Crested Butte Daisy Troop and they were excited to help out. We will be helping to change children’s lives right here in Gunnison County.”
And she will be doing it through the group Underwearness, a non-profit organization based in Denver whose purpose is to provide new underwear to children in need. In an email to her friends, Hastings explained, “The founders of Underwearness are young professionals who regularly count their many blessings in life. When it came to their attention that some children do not have underwear—clean or otherwise—it was decided that that wasn’t acceptable. Underwearness was formed to “Help children one pair at a time.”
Hastings said she has received a lot of positive feedback about the effort. And she said most people don’t realize the need for donating a product like underwear. “Something like underwear is usually not a contribution most people think of,” she said. “People just don’t think about it.
“But it is something that is a necessity,” she continued. “It’s not just about hygiene, but that’s a big part of it. It’s good for the kids from a health standpoint and it’s good for their morale. It’s good for their mental state.”
The organization doesn’t like to accept cash or money donations. They prefer actual underwear so people know that their donations are going to the kids who need it. And Hastings understands that it might be a bit out of the way for local people who want to make such a donation. Bulk packages of underwear are not easily bought in Crested Butte, so she asks that donors try to remember the need during their next trip to Gunnison.
“Justin set me up and it worked,” Tracy admits. “He knew I’d cry when I found out about it and he knew I’d do something about it.”
The collection boxes will stay on the streets until next Monday or Tuesday. The packages of underwear will then be taken down to the county for distribution.
“If I can make a positive difference for one kid, that will make me happy,” Hastings said.
For more information on the project, call Tracy Hastings at 209-6254 and go to www.underwearness.org.