The township is collecting donations for a youth leadership and service workshop on Martin Luther King Day.
Donations include individually wrapped toothbrushes, travel toothpaste, travel bar soap and shampoo, conditioner, travel deodorant, combs, disposable razors, travel shaving cream, washcloths and feminine hygiene products. They will be used to create hygiene kits for residents ages 11 to 17 as part of a workshop with police on Monday, the King holiday.
Megan Brown, director of recreation in the township, said about 60 people are expected. In past years, donations of books and jackets were collected, but that meant fewer items came in.
“The reason we shifted away from that this year is that we found that that kind of system spread the collections a little thin is the best way to describe it,” Brown explained. “So if you’re looking for six totally different types of things – as opposed to focusing on all jackets or all books – you get a small variety of things as opposed to making a large impact with one focused thing. So that’s where we kind of came up with the idea of this hygiene kit initiative.”
Brown said that while the recreation department has sponsored similar donation drives over the past 15 years, 2026 marks the first for donations of hygiene kits.
“This edition was really born from a conversation with our police department,” Brown noted. “Obviously, we all work under the same Cherry Hill umbrella. We thought that this was a good opportunity to engage with some of these middle-school-age kids and build that connection, both with our elected officials and with our police officers.”
While she has yet to get confirmation, Brown is trying to partner with Walmart, Target, Wegmans and ShopRite to get donations in the form of money or hygiene products. The community has until Thursday to drop off items at the municipal building, Croft Farm or the library.
The township is also hosting a trail maintenance event on Sunday at Croft Farm as part of its MLK Day of Service.
At the end of the day, Brown wants the rec department to provide as many opportunities as possible for the community to volunteer.
“As a township, we rely on our community volunteers for so many things, from our sports leagues to our supportive events and all sort of things,” she observed. “We just really try and engage with the community as often as we can. We always try to have a variety of volunteer things happening so that if you’re a parent with small children or maybe you’re an older adult or whatever, we’d like to have opportunities for anyone to get involved.”
