Men of Steel hands Our Friends Closet check for $10,000
By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
SLIDELL – When the situation of homeless teens in St. Tammany Parish first surfaced over 10 years ago there were questions about the reality of the claims, especially after school officials said they had over 1,200 students in 66 schools who were considered “homeless.”
Those numbers haven’t changed much since media stories started in 2011, and there still may be questions about how many truly “homeless” students there are who go to school in the North Shore public school system, considered one of the more affluent communities in the region.
Tina Billiot and Wendy Keller hear those concerns, but never let it stop them from 2018 until today after they began Our Friends Closet, a non-profit organization that is providing a multitude of items to those homeless students in St. Tammany Parish.
“We hear about that at times, but all we know is that we have experienced numerous personal situations of kids who really didn’t have things they needed, and either lived from house to house, or actually on the street.
“This all started when my daughter came home one day and said a girl at school needed feminine products,” Keller said. “We began to provide female hygiene products at first, then the more we talked to counselors at the school and heard about other needs they had, we just did more-and-more.”
Today, the two women, who both work and are grandmothers, only see Our Friends Closet expanding to help more areas, recently branching into St. Bernard and Tangipahoa Parish, along with the ongoing work in St. Tammany public schools.
That’s why a $10,000 check given to them by a Slidell men’s group, Men of Steel, was so much appreciated. The men’s group hands out a check for that amount every quarter to a local non-profit.
“We now provide over $20,000 a year in products to kids,” Keller said. “So this is huge to get a check like this. Normally we spend our time asking for donations, or actual products the kids can use.”
Keller said that in the first year of Our Friends Closet they began to help with various different items, along with money when kids needed it. Then the request for daily snacks for kids got very popular. Now they provide shoes, clothes, mattresses, and the most popular item lately, air mattresses.
They have created a network of information coming from school counselors and mental health providers who contact them regularly to pass along needs they hear from students.
“A new one we are getting more lately is to have underwear for young kids who might have an accident at school,” she added. “We believe that our job is to fill the need as we hear it, and not worry about if someone truly needs the help or not. If the counselors say the kids need something then we provide it, and so far, we haven’t had to say ‘no.’”
Keller, a 59-year-old with three grandchildren who works in law enforcement full time, has done it all with her friend Tina, a 56-year-old grandmother of 11, who is a part-time bookkeeper.
Even though the organization has grown, no one gets a salary, and they don’t see things ending anytime soon.
“Wendy and I were both single moms at one point in our lives,” Tina said. “So we understand how tough it can be. We had people help us years ago so now we want to help in any way we can when we hear about kids and their struggles.”
Wendy said the actual “thank you” notes from students don’t show up too often, although once in a while they do, making it all worthwhile.
“We get a few,” she said, showing a picture of one from an appreciative student. “It makes it all worth it.”
If you would like to support the work of Our Friends Closet, you can contact them by e-mail at: Ourfriendscloset01@gmail.com
Men of Steel is a Slidell philanthropic group of 100 members who meet quarterly, all donating $100 for a total of $10,000, which is then given to a civic or non-profit group that is chosen in a vote by the members.