Family ties drive clothing collection in Swampscott

SWAMPSCOTT – Every time she visited her grandmother in the Dominican Republic, Leandra Scott, 17, recalled hearing the same question from neighborhood children.”They were all waiting, and they said, ?Did you bring us any chocolate? Did you bring us anything American?'” Scott said Sunday. “Then you would be driving and you’re always seeing kids begging for money in the drive-throughs.”It’s a jarring juxtaposition to the children Scott sees in her hometown of Swampscott. So she is working to bridge her Dominican and Swampscott homes by founding Extremes, a nonprofit organization to collect children’s clothes in Swampscott and distribute the clothes to children in the Dominican Republic.”The idea is to connect extreme wealth to extreme poverty,” Scott said. “In the Dominican Republic there aren’t any programs that offer welfare – if you don’t have food or something, that’s just the way it is. I can’t give anybody jobs or food. But I can give them clothes.”Scott is a junior at Swampscott High School, and she grew up spending summers visiting her grandmother in a middle-class neighborhood in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. But even in a middle-class neighborhood, the signs of surrounding poverty can’t be ignored. So her family always brought a bag of extra clothes to give away when they visited family.But Scott isn’t headed to see her grandmother this summer, so she planned on just shipping the clothes.In September, however, Scott was nominated by someone (she said she isn’t sure whom) to participate in the Chica Project, a mentorship program for young Latinas. She learned that a group of adults was heading to a school in Manganagua, Dominican Republic, for a service project that coincided with her April vacation.”I was going to ship (the clothes) anyways, but I thought, why not go myself?” Scott said.So she applied to go on the trip and, with support from her mother and her mentor, started the process of forming a nonprofit organization to which people could donate clothing. On April 7, Scott learned she was one of seven people – and the only teenager – chosen for the trip. It was leaving two weeks later.”I realized I had to get some more clothes!” Scott said.So Scott solicited donations from families for whom she babysits, from her parents’ friends, from her friends at school, and she asked for donations via Facebook. She set up a GoFundMe page to solicit donations for the plane tickets and to buy shopping bags for the students.She ended up lugging 150 pieces of clothing in two big suitcases down to Manganagua.The final day the volunteers were at the local school, students came into the principal’s office to pick out clothes.Scott said her favorite part of the trip was seeing the kids’ excitement when picking out and trying on clothes.She returned to Swampscott and immediately decided to send another shipment. So now she is again reaching out to friends, family and the community. Tower School will be holding a clothing drive in support of her efforts, and a section of her basement has been set aside for big packing boxes and stacks of clothes – ranging from baby onesies to adult fashions.”She always has something she’s working on,” said Scott’s mother Digna Saad, who is helping her daughter through the official process of forming a nonprofit organization.Meanwhile, Scott is in touch with some of the poorest schools in the Dominican Republic to find who can accept the clothes, ensure they are distributed, and also ensure that kids wear – and don’t sell – them.”I want to start giving clothes in the Dominican Republic,” Scott said as she packed another box of clothes to be donated. “But my goal is to be all around the world in all different developing countries.”For more information on how to help, please visit www.helpextremes.com.