Lowcountry Orphan Relief Site Visit

03/16/2018

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of visiting the headquarters and distribution center of Lowcountry Orphan Relief. Sheilagh Carlisle, the organization’s marketing director, was gracious enough to take time from her morning to give me a tour of the facility, explain more about what Lowcountry Orphan Relief does, and how we can support their efforts as a community.

One of the most impressive aspects of my visit was how organized the operations are over at Lowcountry Orphan Relief. The process of fulfilling and delivering orders relies on a small team of dedicated staff, along with 500 local volunteers. Lowcountry Orphan Relief does so much more than simply receive and distribute clothing and toiletry donations.

Each order received by LOR is sent out as a comfort/survival kit for at-risk children and youth. For younger children, this means a plentiful supply of age appropriate clothing, diapers, bottles, books, and other essentials. For the older children and youth, orders are filled with clothing for school, work, interviews, and tools to set each child up for success.

“We want to include those things that so many of us forget that we use,” explained Sheilagh. She challenged me to list what things I would suffer without if I had to leave everything behind today, with nothing to my name but the clothes on my back. Even simplifying things, there are so many items that we take for granted. For example, bobby pins, feminine hygiene items, writing materials, phone chargers and more are often overlooked when we think about daily essentials.

LOR is fortunate enough to receive generous donations of basics from community members, but during peak seasons, it can be hard to keep inventory stocked. “We fill orders with a week’s worth of living basics, and that depletes our stock quickly,” Sheilagh told me. “Our inventory is constantly in turnover, and we sometimes have to go out and make purchases for individual orders.”

This is where we want to come in. We are collecting donation items to fill the shelves at LOR, and will be raising $5000 as a financial cushion to ensure that no orders go unfilled.

Want to join the efforts?

• Bring your spring cleaning to us! We will be collecting gently used clothes and shoes throughout the month in our office.
• Donate online! Skip your morning latte and help us meet our goal HERE
• Attend our benefit night at Five Loaves in Summerville on Tuesday March 27th. For more information, check out the event HERE