Elizabeth Guillotte watched students walk down the halls of Franklin High School wearing shoes that were four sizes too big. She was concerned to see some show up to class in the same worn pair of jeans and T-shirt every day. She learned that many didn’t have regular access to a shower, toiletries – or even food.
“There were a lot of kids who weren’t eating unless they were at school,” said Guillotte, a sophomore. “That’s a sad fact.”
Guillotte didn’t judge – she wanted to do something to help.
More than 60% of students in the Franklin School District receive free and reduced lunch, according to district statistics. Five percent are homeless.
Economic hardship in the city has led to a lot of students going without supplies they need, Guillotte said – and the community looking to find creative solutions to lend a hand.
This school year, she and other members of the school’s FIRST Robotics team decided to create a make-shift thrift shop full of donated clothes, toiletries and school supplies for students to check out anonymously and keep for free, called “Karma Korner.”
Karma Korner is located on the school’s third floor, a colorfully decorated room with bright yellow and purple walls and stacks of neatly organized items like toothbrushes, jackets and socks. Students volunteer to work there every day.
“You can see that a lot of people are coming in, signing out clothes, blankets, deodorant,” said Ricky Mazur, a sophomore on the robotics team, pointing to a piece of lined paper with a list of items that had been taken out by students during a day working at Karma Korner last week.
Students don’t need to identify themselves when they take something out at Karma Korner – the sign in sheet is only required to help students keep track of what items are going out and what they need to restock.
The school has also developed a program in that room where students can sign up to receive certain foods, like pasta, cereal and protein bars. The kids will volunteer to help staff fill backpacks full of food that students can take home with them on weekends.
Sophomore Xiomara Head said the response to Karma Korner from the community has been huge: They just started a grant program with Twin Rivers Interfaith Food Pantry to collect food; currently receive clothes donations from organizations like the Etcetera Shoppe, a thrift store in Meredith; and recently got a shipment of two washers and two dryers that Sears sold them at a reduced cost that Franklin Savings Bank paid for.
The washers and dryers are being set up in a former teacher’s lounge and will be available for students to access in just a few weeks.
“We’re not just about building robots, we’re about making the community whole,” Head said. “For students who don’t have what they need, we make them feel comfortable. We make them feel safe. That’s what we do in Karma Korner.”
Staff members at Franklin High School know it’s hard for students to focus on school when their needs aren’t being met, said Leda Guillotte, a special education paraprofessional at Franklin High School and a mentor of the robotics team.
“I cannot expect a child to come in, and as an educator, try to educate a child when they’re hungry,” said Leda, who is also Elizabeth Guillotte’s mother. “I can’t educate a child when they feel unsafe, when they don’t feel like their basic needs are being met. That’s been a really hard thing for all of us as educators.”
Karma Korner was an effort the school tried to start a few years ago to address some of those problems, but it was on a much smaller scale – the room was located in a low-traffic part of the school that wasn’t handicap accessible and they had fewer donations.
The robotics team, which just started at the high school two years ago, decided to breathe new life into the project; they sent out letters to 60 local organizations like Watts Regulator Company and Benson Auto, C & C Cars and the Thrift Clothes Closet in downtown Franklin.
And once Karma Korner was up and running, it became popular with students. Guillotte said she thinks the draw for a lot of students is the fact that the project is student led.
“It’s really something where we wanted to make sure there was an atmosphere of student care – not just an adult room. That’s why it’s painted in bright colors and we have things on the walls and all these quotes,” she said. “We don’t want it to feel dead and dull like a regular classroom. We want students to be welcome here, we want students to know this is a place where students can come and they can feel comfortable in.”
They’ve also seen an improvement in student behavior, Head said.
“A lot of the students who needed the supplies, usually you would see a negative emotion from a lot of those students here,” Head said. “More and more, as students come and get what they need, the less people act out.”
Guillotte said being a part of robotics and the efforts of Karma Korner has given her and other students newfound confidence in their school and city.
“There used to be a very negative attitude about Franklin within Franklin because there was such a negative attitude about Franklin elsewhere,” she said. “But seeing that we have a robotics team building these robots and having success and all of the recognition we’ve received for Karma Korner has really brought up the atmosphere. It’s helping students try and get that positive attitude up instead of thinking negatively about themselves.”
The Franklin High School FIRST Robotics team won the Judges’ Award during a meet in Bedford this past March. Officials said they earned it because of their approach to helping students with Karma Korner.
“I always had that mindset that there were a lot of things we just couldn’t do in Franklin because we didn’t have the funds,” Guillotte said. “Now that we have the robotics team and all of the fundraising for that, for Karma Korner, it’s made me realize that if you really try to get people to help you and you have a good cause for wanting that help, you just have to put yourself out there, and the community will support you.”