Zips for Akron Hope is a student organization created to support Akron Hope, a non-profit organization dedicated to inspiring hope to the next generation through various outreach programs that promote positive and intentional living here in Akron.

Zips for Akron Hope reaches out to the Akron community by engaging with disadvantaged schools in the Akron Public School system, and is affiliated with many other organizations such as Different Like You, a non-profit that empowers people to use their differences to help others learn and grow.

The organization, which is in its second year, will also be partnering with many other student organizations for Adopt A Classroom. One of its biggest upcoming events, Adopt a Classroom will bring together Akron Public Schools, UA students, and Akron community members with the goal of inspiring hope in children.

Every student in each Adopt a Classroom location (Helen Arnold Community Learning Center and Portage Path Elementary) will receive an age-appropriate gift, but Adopt a Classroom is very different from other toy drives because of the time that donors and volunteers get to spend with the children receiving the gifts. Zips for Akron Hope can use all the help it can get for this event.

Students can volunteer to help, and even join the organization at any time. Gift wrapping night will be held on Nov. 9, with food and fun activities for students that come and help wrap. Delivery days are Wednesday, Dec. 24 and Friday, Dec. 16.

Not only does Zips for Akron Hope help, support, and provide volunteers for the Akron Hope non-profit, it also has its own outreach with the goal of inspiring hope, joy, and spreading awareness about what it means to live life intentionally on campus.

Over 100 students are actively involved in Zips for Akron Hope.

Kaylee Gutschow, the president of Zips for Akron Hope, says that working for Zips for Akron Hope is so beneficial because not only do students get to support students in local schools, but the experience can change the volunteers’ own lives.

For Gutschow, the most rewarding part is “knowing that [she] is using [her] life to help change the lives of others.”

Interested students should contact Kaylee Gutschow at [email protected].