PHOTO PROVIDED These are some of the Jersey Shore Middle School teachers who are participating in the operation of a Care Closet at the school to provide students with things they need, from clothing to personal hygiene and specialty items. From left are, at top, Mrs. Rodabauch, Mrs. Charnego, Mrs. Morlock, Mrs. Stamm, Ms. Richards, and Mrs. Enders; at bottom, Mrs. Silvis and Mrs. Fedele.

JERSEY SHORE — Providing basic needs to help kids focus on school.

That’s one of the biggest reasons behind Jersey Shore Middle School’s Care Closet.

From hygiene items such as shampoos, conditions, soaps and tooth paste to clothing like coats, shoes and pants and even specialty items such as dresses, dress shirts and slacks, the Care Closet has whatever a student needs.

Teachers Haley Enders and Tracy Silvis first began brain storming the idea about the closet after seeing something similar on social media.

“We kind of came up with it separately and kind of joined efforts,” Enders said. “It was just realizing that there’s a need in our building.”

“We saw a video on Facebook of another school… that was doing something similar in an elementary school and we were like ‘well we can do that’ and we knew the community would support us,” Silvis said.

And they have in leaps and bounds.

The room where the closet is located is full of everything a student could need, the majority of which was donated by teachers, staff and the community.

Silvis told a specific story when the closet was in desperate need of a specific item.

“This is the story I tell everybody because it blows me away,” she said.

One day a student came to the closet in need of a draw string bag to carry their gym clothes in, she said.

“The teacher who was here said ‘well there aren’t any down here but I think I have one in my classroom,'” she said.

After hearing about the issue, Silvis went to the closets official Facebook page, JSMS Care Closet, and asked the community for help. And they did just that.

“(The post was made) at about 2:30 in the afternoon. By 9 o’clock the next morning we had about 50 drawstring bags sitting in the office waiting for us,” Silvis said.

Both women were blown away by the support the closet has received.

“You don’t realize how much people support you until it happens. It was a really neat moment,” Enders said.

The closet has received donations from many different members of the community and even those from as far as Lock Haven.

“We had a person from Lock Haven (donate). She said she didn’t have a car, and so she bought stuff and mailed it to us,” Tracy said.

The two boxes were stuffed full of hygiene products, costing the woman about $30 just to mail, Haley said.

They told another story about an avid CVS couponer who donated a large quantity of products as well.

“It’s just been awesome to watch,” Ender said. “I tend to be the one to pick up the donations and almost everyday they call me from the office to say there’s a donation for the Care Closet.”

As the donated items come in, Enders life skills support class plays a large role in ensuring everything is organized.

“They have done kind of everything you see for the most part,” Enders said.

From organization, washing clothes that may need washed and keeping things neat and tidy, they do quite a lot.

“They have worked really hard in here and they’re learning a lot of skills that they can hopefully take when they leave us and utilize,” she continued.

Enders and Silvis are also just two of nine staff in the building who help keep the closet running. Judy Morlock, Eileen Dunn, Lori Stamm, Monica Richards, Barb Fedele, Lynnann Charnego and Nancy Rodabaugh also volunteer their time and effort in the closet.

Although the closet is full of a large variety of items, one thing they’d like to see more of is “specialty items.”

“Our kids wear black bottoms and white tops for the Christmas concerts and that’s something that might be hard (to get) because they wear them one or two times and then they out grow them,” Silvis said. “That’s a sacrifice for some people to buy an outfit for a kid that’s only going to be worn once or twice. So we’re going to try and gather up some of those.”

They also are hoping to collect some dress clothes for the two dances the school holds each year, the winter formal and spring fling.

“I’m sure there are kids who don’t go to the dances because they can’t afford to buy the clothes that other people are wearing,” Silvis said.

To ensure the needs of the students are being met, volunteers have conducted student surveys and plan to do so in the future.

“We talked about letting it have some time here to settle in and then definitely repeating,” Enders said.

Enders and Silvis also have some long-term plans for the closet they’d like to implement in the future.

“We’re kind of getting into a groove this semester and figuring things out as we go,” Enders said.

The pair encourage students who are in need of an item to reach out, either through email or talking to one of the staff volunteers, to get help.

“This is for you,” Silvis said of the students. “We want you to take advantage of it.”

Anyone who may be interested in donating to the care closet can email MSCareCloset@jsasd.org, call 570-398-7400 and ask for a care closet team member or visit their Facebook page JSMS Care Closet.