Detroit Rescue Mission to supply hygiene products to Wyandotte schools

 

Community Choice Credit Union helping with collection effort

By SUE SUCHYTA

Sunday Times Newspapers

WYANDOTTE – The Detroit Rescue Mission has established a location in the city to help meet the needs of the underserved, which will include supplying hygiene products through the Wyandotte Public Schools.

Billie Lionberger, Detroit Rescue Mission outreach coordinator, said they have partnered with the Fraternal Order of Police to help people in need Downriver who may be hesitant to seek services from the DRM in Detroit.

As a Wyandotte native, Lionberger said she understood residents’ initial concern about the Detroit Rescue Mission establishing a physical location in Wyandotte, which is meant to be administrative and for storage, and not to provide onsite services to those in need. 

“I was prepared for a little bit of push-back, but was not prepared for the ignorance,” she said. “I’m glad the city council asked me to come down and clear all of that up.”

The Detroit Rescue Mission began by working with the FOP to supply coats and toys during the winter holidays for 100 Wyandotte-area children in need. The DRM also helped supply food for Thanksgiving meals for households in need, which cemented Lionberger’s determination to establish a Downriver physical presence for the DRM in Wyandotte. 

A former neighborhood store at 1167 Maple St. became the answer to their quest, as it is reasonably close to the schools and to the police and fire departments. 

Lionberger said the Detroit Rescue Mission has been working with the Wyandotte Police Department for the past year to help them with people who are homeless, who have a substance abuse disorder or who are in a domestic violence situation. 

She said she will help Wyandotte police officers by locating Detroit shelter placements for people in need, and later can connect people with counselors who will help them find either treatment programs or housing solutions. 

Lionberger said the Wyandotte location will also provide school supplies for both students and teachers who need them. 

She said they will store non-perishable food items in addition to the hygiene items, and said school employees have been great helping to distribute donated supplies, like hand sanitizer and feminine hygiene products, to the specific school locations where they are needed. 

Community Choice Credit Union, based in Farmington Hills, held a hygiene product drive at its Wyandotte location to help collect products. 

 

CCCU Member Center Manager Nicole Baker said when she learned that the Detroit Rescue Mission was establishing a physical presence Downriver, she contacted them to see how they could help support its mission. 

Baker said she created an Amazon wish list based on a register of requested donations that the DRM had established. Packages of purchased hygiene products arrive at the CCCU member service center, where they will be stored until they are turned over to the DRM Downriver location at its March 1 grand opening its Wyandotte Maple Street location. 

The link to the wish list is: amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/2PDWH12028W3A?ref_=wl_share. 

Baker said items like deodorant, razors and toothbrushes, things many of us take for granted, are needed in addition to the feminine hygiene products. 

Because she grew up in Wyandotte and is working Downriver, she knows there is a need in the immediate area for the products they are collecting for donation to the DRM. 

“Any way that we can give back to support the community, we are always looking for an opportunity,” Baker said. 

Mike Scott, CCCU senior public relations and communications specialist, said through the credit union’s “Give Big” program, nearly 400 employees have contributed 9,813 hours of community service in 2022, and they hope to increase the total in 2023 to 10,000 hours.