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Highlander for the Homeless: Skyler Proffit's Project Inspired by Family

Helix student follows in footsteps of mother and grandmother, an example of community service.

Skyler Proffit looks at the world through her young eyes, sees people in need and feels compelled to offer them a helping hand.

“How can you not do charity work?” she asks. “How can you not help people around you?”

Proffit, 17, a senior at Helix Charter High School, is following the lead of her grandmother and mother—who long made community service part of their lives—by organizing a drive to help the homeless in San Diego.

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She decided to do the work as her senior project at Helix. Since the project received formal approval in November, Skyler has been taking donations of clothes, food, toys, personal-hygiene products and money.

She’ll continue working on the project through December and January, with plans to personally distribute the items Jan. 28 with the help of her mother, Teresa Rosiak-Proffit, and friends in the area near the East Village section of San Diego.

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It’s a large-scale project, requiring solicitation of donations and help, distributing flyers, organizing, sorting and packing the donations, arranging a truck to haul the goods to the distribution area—along with arranging volunteers to help—and getting enough money to pull it all together.

The minimum number of hours required for a senior project at Helix is 20, but Skyler in her project proposal figures her hours will be almost triple that. Realistically, the total will likely be much more.

Christine Passmore, an English teacher at Helix who has worked with Skyler on her proposal, says, “Skyler obviously is taking on a really big project.” But she says Skyler is “very ambitious” about it.

“She’s very determined and has a lot of fire for it,” Passmore says. “She has some sort of personal connection that’s inspired her to do this.”

That personal connection is a deep one.

First, there were the examples set by her grandmother, Lucy Rosiak—who died in October at 91—and mother. For most of Skyler’s life, she witnessed and accompanied her grandmother on many projects, collecting items for the less unfortunate, delivering them or doing other good works.

Teresa says for she and her two daughters—Skyler has a younger sister—“giving back is huge.” For many years the family has been involved in collecting items for an orphanage in Mexico, Teresa says.

And while driving or walking around this area, Skyler, who lives in Lemon Grove, says homeless people are visible almost everywhere. She sees them and feels a need to help.

“You can’t ignore them,” she says.

Also comes a personal connection—a “there but for the grace of God” awareness that homelessness can strike anyone.

Teresa relates she was a victim of domestic violence, and she, Skyler and her youngest daughter went through hard times when her husband eventually divorced her and left them. He hasn’t given them any help, says Teresa, and that led to some hard times financially.

“I can remember how we’d literally have to count pennies to make the mortgage,” Skyler says.

Teresa, who works at Scripps Mercy Hospital in Hillcrest, relates that her oldest daughter helped “give me the courage” to get out of the bad situation she found herself in.

So when it came time to come up with a senior project, Skyler knew she wanted to help the homeless in some way. Even after the senior project is completed, she says she would love to continue helping.

Of course, for a busy senior in high school, there often don’t seem to be enough hours in the day.

Aside from school and homework, Skyler is a competitive swimmer at Helix and for the College Area Swim Team in San Diego. She’s in the midst of college applications—she’d love to major in kinesiology or nutrition and eventually become a doctor—and is involved in other extracurricular activities.

She’s been swimming seriously for 10 to 11 years, and would love to have the opportunity to compete in college. But that’s still in the future.

For the next few weeks—particularly with the extra time she’ll have over the winter break—she’s focusing on her project.

“I know I will make a difference,” she says. “I know at least one person is going to get something out of this project.”

Passmore notes that many Helix students each year decide to do community service-oriented projects. She says this year, for instance, one student is organizing the compilation and shipping of care packages to troops overseas. Another is doing a gift drive for children in Mexico.

Others have projects to help educate local students.

Teacher Passmore says Skyler’s takes a lot of commitment.

“The fact she’s going down to do the distribution on her own requires a whole different level of organization,” she says. “Because on her own she needs to do a lot more managerial work and organization and setup, rather than working with an existing group where things already are set up.”

Says Skyler: “I want to see these items go directly into the hands of the people who need them.”

People who’d like to donate or help with Skyler's project can phone 619-589-0355 or email 900059@helixcharter.net.

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