On Friday, February 27, Celia, Campbell and visited Sanctuary for Families once again. We emailed Lauren Mindel a couple weeks before our visit telling her we would love to come in and help. Lauren gladly accepted our offer by saying Leah and the In-Kind Donations Program and Sanctuary could never have too much help. Leah is the manager of the In-Kind Donations Program. When the got there, we didn’t need an orientation (we had done that last time we visited) so we got right to work. The first thing we did was go through the donations Sanctuary had received and decided what would be appropriate for the Butterfly Boutique. The Butterfly Boutique is a shop where victims of sex trafficking and domestic violence can go and pick out clothing, toys or sanitary items. Although everything is free, it can be a fun activity for victims that makes them forget about their experiences. After helping out at the boutique, we put books in the waiting room and organized them based on category. There are people of all ages and nationalities who wait in the waiting room for their councilor and it is important to have books that meet everyone’s standards. After three hours of hard work with Leah, it was time to head back to school.

Although this visit/volunteering experience wasn’t directly related to sex trafficking, I did realized while we were working that there are so many victims (of abuse) that need help. However, never declines help and has the exact facilities all victims deserve. Our volunteer work made Sanctuary an even more warm and welcoming place. Similar to our previous visit, helping the victims choose clothes/books was a little emotional. Making these people feel happy while “shopping” after they have been though so much made me proud of my Social Justice Group and how far we’ve come. I will definitely volunteer with Sanctuary again even after the Social Justice Project.