Two sisters in Clearfield County spread happiness to students in need one bag of hygiene products at a time.
Shawna Cassick and Angela Michaels started Little Bag of Sunshine in spring 2018.
The project provides students in the YMCA food backpack program at West Branch and Philipsburg Osceola school districts with the bags.
Bags are also distributed in the St. Marys Area School District and they give hygiene products to students in the Clearfield Area School District.
“We always include for the girls feminine hygiene products, shampoo, soap, conditioner,” Cassick said. “We’ll pack these bags full, sometimes you can’t even zip them.”
While girls receive bags with travel-sized products once a week, boys in the program receive full-size products once a month.
The bags are delivered to the schools then distributed by the guidance offices.
Cassick and Michaels got the idea for the project because they both subscribe to Ipsy, a monthly makeup subscription service.
They said because they had unused makeup bags and products, they wanted to donate them.
Michaels said they thought this would be a one-time donation.
“It’s going to be a one-time thing and the end. It’s not the end,” Michaels said. “These kids need this stuff every week and we wanted to find a way to keep providing it as often as we could.”
Since then, they’ve given away hundreds of bag and have received countless donations from the community to help fill them.
“I never would’ve thought there would be much need in our community and interest from the community members to help to us,” Cassick said.
So they pack as much as they can into a bag in hopes of spreading a little happiness to students who need it.
“We want them to know that somebody is thinking about them, looking out for them, and maybe things aren’t great right now for them, but they have a bright future,” Michaels said.
Little Bag of Sunshine extends beyond the schools. They will send a bag to anyone in need who reaches out to them.
They accept donations of any kind or brand of personal hygiene products for males and females, except razors.
To find out how to donate, visit their Facebook page or email littlebagofsunshine@yahoo.com.