How many things in life can you say are win/wins. Few.

This month, our messages in the Enews have been explaining the New Apartment Kits for the foster youth aging out of the system. Now we’d like to fill in a few details.

The original idea for the NAKS came from the kids themselves. When asked “what do you need the most?,” they specified many of the things we include in the baskets. No surprise, toilet paper was number one on the list. Apparently, for teenagers, toilet paper is just sort of there. Like water from the tap or lights when you flick a switch.

Over the years, we have refined the NAK in response to feedback from the kids and the caseworkers. For example, many new apartments have tub/showers with sliding doors, but lower income housing is frequently old school. So we added shower curtains.

We set a dollar limit on what we include in the basket. We have gone from 4 place settings of china to 2 to keep within our budget. Some items, like toilet paper and paper towels, we buy in bulk to keeps the costs down.

Our ultimate goal is to provide good quality essentials at the best price. By keeping a balance between quality and cost, we aspire to serve a larger population. This is especially relevant this year, as we are serving Kent County as well as New Castle.

For us, the WIN is when goods are donated and we need to purchase fewer items. For you, the WIN is that our requests are kept at an inexpensive level. Donors can contribute at any financial level. A trip to the dollar store can yield a wonderful donation. For the young adults, the WIN is a basket of money-saving items.

So, take a look at the list on Sign Up Genius at this link. You will see that although we have some items covered, there are still more needed. Just find what items we need and pick them up when you do your routine household shopping. A small bump at the grocery store means so much to so many. And who doesn’t love a trip to the Dollar Tree!

Our ILYA volunteers will be eagerly awaiting you in the back parking lot of First U on June 24th from 11 to 1. See you there.