On Saturday, March 4, the TPC youth group and a few hardy adults gathered at the church to head out to volunteer at Clean the World.
We were met at Clean the World by the extraordinarily-organized Gabi Norris, community development leader and volunteer coordinator. Several other volunteer groups were also in attendance. We worked as part of a team of about 40 people.
Everyone got their assignments and for three hours, we went to “work” (it was a lot of fun).
Our job was to sort bottles of body wash, shampoo, conditioner and soap bars that have been donated to Clean the World from hotels all over the country. All these goods would normally be thrown away so we were helping with a huge waste diversion program.
As we sorted, we enjoyed the fabulous music that plays while volunteers are working. There were singalongs and we learned that you can sort and dance at the same time. I think the adults may have had even more fun than the youth, who were just a little bit sleepy.
When we finished, Gabi advised us that we, along with volunteers from other organizations, had sorted over 18,000 items!
Clean the World is an international non-profit organization with headquarters in Orlando. As a social enterprise the mission of saving millions of lives around the world, Clean the World leads a global hygiene revolution to distribute recycled soap and hygiene products from more than 4,000 hotel and resort partners to children and families in countries with a high death rate due to acute respiratory infection (pneumonia) and diarrheal diseases (cholera), which are two of the top killers of children under the age of five. Since 2009, Clean the World has distributed more than 35 million bars of soap in 100 countries.