Local student-athletes support Self Care Awareness Month with hygiene drive and fundraiser

CHICAGO - Local student-athletes are stepping up for Self Care Awareness Month, collecting thousands of hygiene items and raising $5,000 to promote men's health screenings.

On Sunday, they made a significant impact by giving back to those in need.

One hundred fifty student-athletes from Chicago-area high schools—Lincoln-Way Central, De La Salle, Thornton, Lake View, Bolingbrook, and Round Lake—came together to distribute the hygiene items collected over just six hours.

"The community at Lincoln Central – we all banded together and threw everything into the boxes to help out those kids," said Jackson Meyer, of Lincoln Central. 

The collected items were for La Casa Norte in Humboldt Park, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting youth and families facing homelessness.

"It makes you feel great. I think, helping out my peers, like, community is very important. I feel like if, like, my generation as a whole is, is strong and educated and you know, able to do what they want, I think we can move forward as a, as a society," Meyer said. 

The giving didn’t stop there; a $5,000 check was also handed out to raise awareness for Self Care Awareness Month.