Community members in Opelousas have worked together to provide almost 300 children with a hat and gloves of their own for the winter.

The project ‘Warm Hands, Warm Heads, Warm Hearts’ first came about when Shawana Johnson saw North Elementary school students waiting for the bus one cold morning. She noticed the children didn’t have hats or gloves and she thought that should change.

Johnson knew providing every student with winter gear would not be easy to do on her own, so she reached out to friends, family and local business owners for help.

Thanks to this collaborative work, all 288 students at North Elementary will be greeted Tuesday morning with a brand new winter hat and gloves. 

Now, the school’s principal, Michele Thibodeaux, is extending her thanks, “It made me really proud of the community. It takes all of us to support our students and make them see that education is important- even little things as staying warm so you can concentrate better in the classroom.”