Help the Homeless Stay Warm

Hello, my name is Tusani Gates and I'm currently a junior at Michigan State University and a large goal of mine is to make a big difference  in the world by making a big difference in individual lives. In 2012, the department of housing and urban development found that roughly 564,708 people in the United States are homeless on any given night, and an even larger 1.6 MILLION people currently use transitional housing or emergency shelters. As colder weather and winter quickly approaches, I'd like to ask everyone to keep these hundreds of thousands of people in your mind; the homeless include the elderly, children, mothers, fathers, veterans, etc. A lot of shelters don't open up for winter until the weather gets 30 degrees or below that, but frostbite (which kills more people during the winter than heat exhaustion does in the summer) can set in at higher temperatures such as 50 degrees; when these shelters do open up, they tend to fill up quickly, leaving hundreds of people still out on the streets. My goal is to aid the homeless in Grand Rapids and East Lansing/Lansing, Michigan by passing out blankets, jackets, non-parishable foods, water, etc. It's something I've been doing on my own for a few years, but with fundraising and more people willing to help, I'll [we'll] be able to make an even larger impact. My goal is only $500, and I intend on personally matching whatever the total fundraising amount is by the end of it (up to $250). If you're unable to donate money, feel free to give me any neatly used jackets that you no longer need or water bottles or anything else of the sorts.  Not only would I feel tremendously indebted to those who decide to help my efforts in helping the homeless, but they would as well. Remember, each homeless person that dies during the Winter is a human being that we have failed. #GoBeyondGiving