Kelsy West, Deputy Director Intern

Yeah, we’re teens.  So What?

In today’s world there is so much talk of problems: such as global warming, the recession, a diminishing source of clean water, and oil crisis.

The conversation about how to solve these problems takes place amongst adults. Youth are never involved in these discussions. Because, there’s a stigma around teenagers: we don’t care, we’re too lazy.

Well, we the students of Riverdale, disagree. We care. We care about the 300,000 people in our region that live in poverty. We care about the 10,000 people who are homeless every night in Portland. We care about our community.

And, more importantly than our passion, we’re taking action. We’re interns of a non-profit organization, DonorsResource.org, whose mission is to connect individual and corporate donors who want to give in-kind donations with nonprofit organizations that need them. Meet a Need. Donate Stuff. We’ve taken over this organization. We, the students, run the graphic design, marketing, social media, development, web development, and program coordination departments.

We see the great disparity between the people who don’t have enough “stuff” and the people who have too much stuff.

We believe that people want to give to those in need in our community.

We believe that when people have “stuff” like pots and pans, towels and furniture they will give them to people in need.

We believe that there is more than enough “stuff” to go around.

And the interns of Riverdale High School are committed to making this happen.