Teens collect thousands of dollars in donations for women's center

What began as a small project by two local teenagers with the hopes of collecting a box or two of donations turned into three car loads worth of items delivered to the Montgomery County Women's Center.

Two iSchool High sophomores, 15-year-old Courtney Brumley and 16-year-old Avery Palacios, are competing in a Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) competition later in January. The pair wanted to do something benefitting women, so they directed their focus toward domestic violence and decided to launch a donation drive for the Montgomery County Women's Center. The center provides a 24-hour hotline, safe shelter, crisis intervention, counseling, advocacy and legal services to survivors of family violence, sexual assault and stalking. The shelter can house up to 75 women and children each night. The iHigh School is a charter college preparatory high school on the campus of Lone Star College.

Brumley and Palacios decided to partner for the HOSA competition because it is the first time for both of them to enter. They are being mentored by two seniors who did a similar project last year.

"We had to pick a topic that was important to us and that was safety or health related," Palacios said. "We heard about the women's center and we were really drawn to it. It's a cause that we think is really important and isn't really talked about in the community and so we decided to do a donation drive."

They began collecting donations at their school and in a couple of neighborhoods on Dec. 1. Brumley's neighborhood of Woodforest went all out to help the teenagers with their project. While they had originally planned to collect donations through the end of December, the pair stopped after only two weeks because they had so many items thanks to the team at Woodforest, who collected more than $4,000 worth of donations.

Faith Pitman, marketing manager of the Woodforest Johnson Development Company, said that the community and development team were delighted to help when Brumley reached out to them.

"The passion that (Courtney) has-she was so excited about the organization, and so we thought 'Let's see what we can do,'" Pitman said.

Pitman reached out to the community explaining the project and asking for donations to support the women's center.

"It was just insane the amount of people that came back (to us) that knew someone who had been affected by domestic abuse," Pitman said of the response.

A team consultant also took a group to WalMart and spent $2,500 on toys and other requested items for the clinic. Pitman said the development company always wants to give back to its residents and that helping Brumley with her project was a great way to do that.

"Finding out later how old she was and knowing at that age how much she wanted to give and the difference that she wanted to make in peoples lives-we were just so impressed," Pitman added.

Brumley and Palacios both said they were overwhelmed by the generosity.

"We definitely wanted to raise awareness and we did a campus wide donation drive. We did it in two other neighborhoods. We totally did not think that we'd get as much as we did end up getting," Palacios said. "We wanted to make a difference but we didn't think that we could do that much, so it made it much more exciting when we were able to do so much."

Brumley said the pair could not have brought more than we did.

"We filled up (the center's) donation room completely and then we had stuff in the hallway, too," Brumley added.

Although winning the HOSA competition would be nice, both teens said that the competition is no longer a primary motivation.

"It's become more than just a competition. We got really passionate about it because we met with a lot of people who worked at the women's shelter or who are really into human rights, and so at this point we've met so many people that we're both really motivated to continue," Brumley said.

Palacios added that the effort is, "Something that's even bigger than we could have imagined or expected."

The project has helped both Brumley and Palacios expand their horizons. They said that everyone knows domestic violence and abuse happen, but they don't think of it happening in their own community.

"It's definitely just opened our eyes. It's kind of crazy that something (like domestic abuse) can be going on because I feel like we all just live in our safe little Woodlands," Palacios said.

Brumley said she agreed with Palacios about the misconception that abuse does not happen in wealthy areas.

"I feel like there's a stigma associated with it where everyone is really wealthy and everyone is really well off, and this kind of stuff just doesn't happen here. Well it does," Brumley said. "It was eye opening for us to see that. And I feel like it's also good for us to know because we're going into high school and college and it's good for us to know these things for ourselves. That way we can also share it with others."

Both have decided that they want to continue helping others throughout high school and moving forward toward their careers.

Brumley wants to be a pediatric surgeon. Although she doesn't yet know what university she wants to attend, she is taking steps toward her dream career.

"I do want to continue doing things with human rights and domestic violence because that's something I've become passionate about after doing this project," she said.

After being approached by local teens, the Woodforest community went all out collecting clothes, household supplies, diapers and much more for the Montgomery County WomenÂ’s Center.

Likewise, Palacios doesn't know yet where she wants to go, but she wants to study psychology.

"I also agree with the human rights thing because it's just been so influential, this whole project that we've been doing," Palacios added.

Palacios was also recently named a Hollister Ambassador for the nationwide clothing store, one of only 24 in the United States. As an ambassador, she will be able to help various other organizations and continue doing works of altruism.

Brumley and Palacios will compete in the HOSA event locally Jan. 26-27. If they place high enough they will advance to state competition in April. Whatever happens, both teenagers said they are glad they were able to make such an impact and know they couldn't have done it without help.

"We'd really like to thank Woodforest, especially Faith Pitman," Brumley said. "She really took us under her wing and she did so much for us. She was talking to contractors and she was getting money coming in and she got all these guys to come with her to WalMart to throw children's stuff into their carts. Faith Pitman, absolutely we owe it all to her because she was the one who brought it all together. And then all the ladies at the Woodforest as well."