Imbler student gives back to the community by raising money for car seat donations
By Garrett Christensen on Thursday, October 19th, 2023 in More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News
IMBLER – Healthcare and social services aren’t just emergency calls and addiction rehab. Sometimes, providing more mundane but nonetheless crucial items can make all the difference for families in need. One local high school student decided she was going to give back to the community by raising the funds for some of these items.
As part of her senior project, Avonlea Crook (forth on the right), currently a senior at Imbler High School, was able to raise $360 dollars to purchase three car seats for the CHD’s home visiting program. When asked why she chose to work with CHD, Avonlea explained:
“I always wanted to be a nurse and I wanted to work in the medical field. So, getting a feel for the medical field through the CHD was kind of intriguing to me. I really wanted to work with them and see the kind of people that work there. I also wanted to see how they interact with people and how they take on professional interactions. So, I definitely wanted to work with the CHD because I know that they’re a big part of our community like that.”
Avonlea began the project during her junior year and finished at the start of this school year. After some trial and error, it was decided to raise the funds through a combination of a silent auction for baked goods and a 50-50 raffle, both of which took place during one of Imbler’s volleyball games.
Avonlea decided to spend the money on car seats, which were purchased at the beginning of October, to be donated to families in the CHD’s home visiting program. The CHD wasted no time getting the car seats where they were needed most. Though Avonlea couldn’t deliver the car seats to the families directly due to security reasons, two different families, one of them being a single mother of 8, had already been lined up before the seats were even handed over to the CHD. As explained by Avonlea:
“I couldn’t go straight to the families, but before I even brought them, they knew exactly who to give them to, which was amazing because that was what I wanted. I wanted to make sure that we could find a family quickly because I wanted those people to have those things.
Going forward, Avonlea said she still plans to pursue a career as a registered nurse though is looking into social services as an option. In either case, her goal is simply to help people and support the community as best she can. As put by Avonlea herself:
“The main reason why I wanted to do this project was to give back to the community that supported me my whole life and I wanted to support someone in a good, beneficial way like that. And I know that the community that I was serving definitely needed that.”
