AAA South Jersey Collects Travel-size Personal Hygiene Items For Local Shelters

Last holiday season, AAA South Jersey members donated hundreds of pounds of unused travel-size hygiene items, for distribution to area homeless shelters. The effort was so successful that it was copied by other AAA clubs in the United States and CAA clubs in Canada.

This year’s “Soap for Hope” campaign will begin on Sept. 1, and continues throughout the holiday season. Donations will be accepted at AAA South Jersey offices in Voorhees, Sewell, Millville and Logan Township.

Single-use, travel-size items – like those distributed at hotels, motels and resorts – are especially welcomed by the shelters. Requested items include soap, shampoo, skin lotion, toothpaste, mouthwash, deodorant, shaving supplies, hand sanitizers, and other personal items.

Collected items will be distributed to Volunteers of America’s Delaware Valley’s Housing and Supportive Services Division’s three family emergency shelters: Agape House in Somerville; Anna Sample Complex in Camden; and the Eleanor Corbett House in Glassboro. Two VOA men’s shelters – Amani House in Trenton and the Aletha R. Wright “Vision of Hope” Center in Camden – will also receive collected items.

The “Soap for Hope” campaign was started by AAA South Jersey Travel Consultant Dawn Higgins, who encouraged her clients to bring back a bar of soap or bottle of shampoo from their travels, so it could be donated to those in need. The response to her request was, quite simply, overwhelming.

The campaign was first announced in the November/December 2012 issue of SJ First magazine. More than 200 pounds of personal hygiene items were collected and distributed before Thanksgiving, with hundreds of pounds more in the following months.