NORTHAMPTON — Dmitri Weise remembers being a 6-year-old concerned that while he had clothes, food and house, there were people who didn’t.
The now 15-year-old recently decided to do something about it. Acting on the idea in December, Weise handed out the first set of carefully assembled care packages in downtown Northampton in February. This week, he has plans to hand out more packages that contain personal hygiene items, socks and pet food.
“At this point, I just want to make sure everyone who we come across has at least one package,” he said.
The Belchertown teen has been working to collect donations from his peers and staff at North Star, the self-directed learning center in Sunderland. In addition to physical donations, Weise has also had help honing his idea.
Ellen Morbyrne, Weise’s academic advisor, helped Weise workshop the idea when he first presented it to her. Their back-and-forth, though, wasn’t anything new — Morbyrne said her role as an advisor is to workshop everything, all the time with the young adults.
Recalling her initial conversation with Weise, Morbyrne said he came to her and said something along the lines of “I’m donating everything to the homeless.” The two talked about how to best accomplish Weise’s goal and reach out to those he intended to help in order to make sure he was collecting and donating things people actually needed instead of acting on assumptions.
Fellow Belchertown teenager Kalleigh Samson, 16, helped Weise deliver the first set of packages. The pair also put up posters around downtown recently to help spread the word about package deliveries on Wednesday afternoon.
Weise said his goal was to make the packages a year-round effort and wants to continue to give the care packages to people individually.
“A lot of people helped out by either going out or just getting donations or giving input,” Weise said. “Everything helps.”
Those interested in making donations to the effort can contact Weise via email at dmitrivweise@gmail.com.
Emily Cutts can be reached at ecutts@gazettenet.com.