Whether you believe in guardian angels or not, they are somewhere among us.
They are dressed as we are, walk and talk as we do. Yes, they are those people among us who do something good every single day and don’t care to talk about it, but when asked, they gladly present the problems they fight against and ask others to do the same, to join them in their fight against all the bad things in this world.
Regular duties of a custodian at a high school normally include picking up after the students, then mopping the floors, and restocking the bathrooms, but Carolyn Collins, the custodian at Tucker High School in Tucker, Georgia, has some exceptional duties. These duties were not given to her by her employer, i.e. the school but by a higher cause.
Three years ago, her regular school custodian job has changed.
After two of the school’s students told her they were homeless and hungry, she realized what her life’s real calling was.point 268 |
She started collecting school supplies, clothes, and all the other basic necessities for kids who have no families.point 98 | Those are the children who go to school regularly but sleep on the street or wherever they find a convenient place.point 195 | She decided to become their guardian angel and to provide them with all the basic things they needed to lead a decent life.point 296 | 1
This is the entrance of the closet where she keeps the things she buys and collects for the homeless children.
After her young son was killed, she was certainly highly depressed, but now she is very optimistic and determined to help everyone she can. She even buys some of the stuff for the kids with her own money. When she sees that a certain child frequently comes to school in the same clothes, she asks him if he needs her help and gladly offers some of the stuff she bought.
Carolyn thinks it is really sad that there are so many high school students who have nowhere to go when the school ends and who are always hungry. Some of these students are sleeping in cars or hotels, and many of them are too ashamed to speak about their situation.
Carolyn transformed a closet in the back corner of the school’s cafeteria into a CARE CLOSET.
This closet is next to her common janitor’s closet but it has a completely different purpose. In this special closet, she gathers everything she thinks a homeless child might need and as she tends to say, ‘I just wanna take care of them’.
She wants to do everything she can to prevent those young boys from stealing and even potential killing (or being killed). Carolyn is well aware that children who live on the street have no other option to survive than by taking other people’s stuff. Stealing is a must if no one helps them. Otherwise, they would surely die from hunger.
The Care Closet is packed with things.
Lack of food is not the biggest problem those homeless children have, but dirty clothes and the lack of proper hygiene.
The Care Closet is full of different pieces of clothing, mostly jeans, shirts, and socks. There are also many used books, new notebooks, pencils, and other school necessities. Carolyn buys them even canned food but there is one thing no one can buy and that is love. She is well aware of that, so she tries to, as much as she can, play a role of their common mother.
But, most of all, it is important to keep the children’s spirit high.
Since children who are poor and homeless are embarrassed and silent about their situation, she asks other people to show her any child who needs her help. She says, ”If you see a child always with their head down, with the same clothes on repeatedly, day after day, let me know.”
Carolyn Collins helps 20-30 children a year but is well aware of the fact that there are many more children who need her help. She doesn’t ask for anything in return and simply says: ”I do something for those kids every day, yes, every day. It is a part of my job.”