The Advocates are delighted to join The Road Home in celebrating the 20th year of The Apple Tree Campaign: a program providing homeless children with back-to-school supplies and, most importantly, the confidence they need to know their self-worth is not determined by where they live.
Housing insecurity is a tragic reality which often makes children feel ostracized from their peers. We want all children in our communities to be able to attend school with confidence. Small acts of kindness, like giving a backpack, will give them a chance to do just that.
What is The Road Home?
The Road Home helps people out of homelessness and back into the welcoming embrace of our community. Equal treatment, compassion, respect, and dignity are the values that guide their work.
They have three shelters in Salt Lake Valley: the South Salt Lake Men’s Resource Center, the Gail Miller Resource Center, and the Midvale Family Resource Center. Each one provides meals, showers, laundry, donated clothing, and a warm place for people to seek solace and sleep. Through its many connections, The Road Home links people with services like job training, mental health treatment, and childcare services.
What is The Apple Tree Campaign?
The Apple Tree Campaign is an annual event helping homeless children get the supplies and clothes they need for a new school year. We want kids staying at The Road Home to enter the first day with a new backpack, fresh clothes, and an air of confidence. In 2023, close to 200 students received hygiene items, clothing, and school supplies.
Throughout all of July, each of The Advocates’ three Utah offices will have a cardboard apple tree with 100 apples. On each fruit is the name, age, size, and material need of one child staying at The Road Home.
The goal is to get each child the following clothing items:
- One durable, high-quality backpack
- Two pairs of pants (jeans or joggers; no shorts, please)
- Two shirts
- One hoodie
- Multi-pack of socks
- Multi-pack of underwear
- One pair of sturdy shoes
Children in 6th grade and up also get a hygiene kit. Each kit is put in a gallon-sized resealable plastic bag with the following:
- Cloth masks
- Toothbrush
- Toothpaste (travel or small size)
- Dental floss
- Deodorant
- Comb, brush, or foldable brush with mirror on the back
- Unbreakable mirror
- Lip balm
- Individual packs of Kleenex
- Small lotions
- Breath mints
- Hair scrunchies or elastic bands
Three Ways You Can Help
Stop by our offices in American Fork, Ogden, or Murray during the month of July to pluck an apple from the tree, purchase what the child needs, and return it to our office.
If you cannot make it in to our offices, there are still ways to help. Check out the website of the Apple Tree Campaign and donate directly to The Road Home. All donations go directly to purchasing items for the campaign. You can also purchase clothing and supplies directly from their Amazon Wish List. Everything you buy will ship directly to The Road Home.
Together we can equip a child with the supplies and clothing they deserve this upcoming school year. It is a small gesture, but every act of kindness, however small, has the potential to change someone’s life.
Office locations:
Murray: 737 E Winchester St, Salt Lake City, UT 84107
American Fork: 388 W Main St, American Fork, UT 84003
Ogden: 533 26th St #101, Ogden, UT 84401