MyImpact Challenge Winner Brings Compassion, Support to San Diego Homeless Community

<p>The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted daily life for people all over the world. After seeing the pandemic’s effect on people experiencing homelessness in San Diego County, Calif., Brayden Pape decided to do something about it.</p>

<p>Pape, a Helix Charter High School student in La Mesa, Calif., created the PATH Interscholastic Leadership Team (PILT), a student-driven nonprofit organization supporting San Diego County’s unsheltered community. PILT provides hygiene products, first-aid supplies, and food, among other services.</p>

<p>The organization collaborates with other nonprofits, including the YMCA, StandUp for Kids, and People Assisting the Homeless (PATH). Pape’s work with PILT earned him a third-place award and $2,500 in the Bill of Rights Institute’s <a href="https://www.billofrightsinstitute.org/my-impact-challenge">MyImpact Challenge</a>.</p>

<p>BRI’s annual civic engagement contest encourages students to develop service projects that benefit their communities and advance constitutional principles such as liberty, equality, and justice. More than 400 students nationwide participated in this year’s MyImpact Challenge.</p>

<p>Even though he understood the challenge was significant, Pape was committed to assisting San Diego’s unsheltered community. He started PILT with just a few of his friends but grew his organization to the point that it now collaborates with 16 schools from five districts.</p>

<p>“It took courage to found PILT from the ashes of the pandemic — a mere idea that grew in response to a need,” Pape wrote in his MyImpact Challenge essay. “We do it because it needs to be done and because we know we can.”</p>

<p>You can <a href="https://bri-docs.s3.amazonaws.com/Project+Report+-+Pape.pdf">learn more about Pape’s project here</a>. Or. visit <a href="https://www.pilt4path.org/">PILT’s website</a> for more information.</p>