![\"Stuyvesant](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/unnamed-1-2.jpg\")
Stuyvesant High School students Shayna Wilson and Skylar Aaron dropping donated clothing off at The Bowery Mission homeless shelter. (Courtesy of Wilson and Aaron)<\/p>\n\u201cNobody would ever look through it,\u201d 16-year-old Skylar Aaron said of the \u201cgiant mountain\u201d of unclaimed belongings at Stuyvesant High School\u2019s lost and found. So far, she and classmate Shayna Wilson, 17, have salvaged more than 2,000 pounds of clothing donations for the homeless.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Stuyvesant High School students Shayna Wilson and Skylar Aaron dropping donated clothing off at The Bowery Mission homeless shelter. (Courtesy of Wilson and Aaron)<\/p>\n
After walking back from a science fair last year, Skylar Aaron, 16, and Shayna Wilson, 17, both seniors at Stuyvesant High School, said something about the sight of the lost and found collection\u2014two massive yellow crates overflowing with coats, lunch boxes, and other neglected wares, pushed to the side of a wall by the school\u2019s entrance\u2014irked them enough to start asking questions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody would ever look through it,\u201d Aaron said, describing the piles of unclaimed belongings from any number of the school\u2019s roughly 3,000 students as \u201ca giant mountain.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The two classmates are founders of Stuyvesant\u2019s homeless coalition<\/a>, a club which organizes clothing and food drives to local charity groups, and offers to pick up and deliver donations from other schools. <\/p>\n That day, their assistant principal told them unclaimed items are tossed away at the end of each year, and gave them permission to sift through the crates for salvageable donations. Last year, they did that twice\u2014collecting about 200 pounds of items the first time, and 250 pounds the second time.\u00a0<\/p>\n The unruly sight of the lost-and-found pile, the girls explained, became the seed of an idea to partner with other local schools to pick up items they could salvage for donations, rather than landfills.\u00a0<\/p>\n Enlisting their mothers\u2019 help to drive them, Aaron and Wilson partnered with two other public schools\u2014offering pick up and drop off services for items they could pull from their own collections\u2014and have so far donated over 2,000 pounds of unclaimed clothing.\u00a0<\/p>\n Now in their senior years, Aaron and Wilson plan to help the club partner with more public schools to collect donations from their lost and founds, including the middle and elementary schools they used to attend.<\/p>\n \u2018I wanted to have an immediate impact\u2018 on the issue\u2018<\/p>\n Aaron and Wilson, who founded the Stuyvesant Homeless Coalition<\/a> in their sophomore year in March 2025, told City Limits that witnessing the hardships that people who lack homes endure\u2014and how those challenges seem much deeper in communities just blocks uptown from some of Manhattan\u2019s wealthiest neighborhoods\u2014underpins their ambition.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cEvery morning when I walk to school, near 72nd Street Station, there\u2019s so many people gathered around,\u201d Aaron said. \u201cI feel like everyone just walks by, because it\u2019s New York City, and everyone is taught to ignore these types of things. But I really just wanted to find a way to help.\u201d<\/p>\n Wilson described her experiences changing apartments\u2014which included four moves in the last eight years, deeper into Harlem from Midtown\u2014and witnessing more prevalent homelessness in her neighborhood, as moments that have stuck with her.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI had an apartment on 86th, and then on 96th, and the difference in just 10 blocks is so apparent,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cI clearly see the changes as you go further uptown, and it just made me care more about the issue of homelessness.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018We saw the potential for it to be expanded all across New York City\u2018<\/p>\n After realizing how massive their school\u2019s lost-and-found collection was, the girls understood that they could bring in much more by partnering with other public schools to do the same with theirs.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe sort of reached out to every public school that we thought would like to join the pilot,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cThey were pretty flexible with how we would come pick it up. I had my mom drive us and we collected the bags.\u201d Common destinations for the items include Goodwill stores and The Bowery Mission<\/a>, a longstanding shelter and nonprofit downtown, because they accept a variety of things.\u00a0<\/p>\n Two other schools joined the pilot, including PS. 77 and East Middle School, both on the Upper East Side.\u00a0\u201cWe saw the potential for it to be expanded all across New York City, because these are thousands of pounds of items that could be donated and are just thrown away,\u201d Aaron said.\u00a0<\/p>\n This year, the club plans to grow\u2014to dig through their lost and found to salvage donations two or three times, hold food and clothing drives, and expand the number of schools they partner with.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d like us to reach out to our old schools, because my elementary school was interested, but we contacted them too late. Now we\u2019re ahead, and we\u2019ll have more success this year,\u201d Wilson said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Public schools that are interested in joining their initiative can schedule pick-up appointments through their website<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n To reach the reporter behind this story, contact [email\u00a0protected]<\/a>. To reach the editor, contact [email\u00a0protected]<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Food](\"https:\/\/citylimits.org\/wp-content\/plugins\/trx_addons\/components\/lazy-load\/images\/placeholder.png\")
Wilson with food drive donations. (Photos courtesy of
Wilson and Aaron)<\/p>\nAaron next to a sign soliciting clothing donations.
(Photos courtesy of Wilson and Aaron)<\/p>\n