Beattie students advance to Hershey for SkillsUSA project that helps peers in need

Malea O’Neill was shocked to learn just how many of her fellow students at A.W. Beattie Career Center often lack basic necessities in their daily lives.

“It was honestly sad to learn how much of a need there is for things that I have always taken for granted. Hearing that someone needs a toothbrush or needs healthy granola bars, that was a little bit shocking and made me want to help even more. Even if it only helps a couple people who choose to use this resource, that’s important to us,” said O’Neill, a senior at the career and technical school in McCandless.

O’Neill, from Shaler Area, along with fellow students Tanner Mayne and Billy Schaeffer from Deer Lakes, are making sure Beattie students have access to things like soap, juice boxes, trail mix and other grab-and-go items via a Caring Cabinet.

The idea is to make self-stable food and hygiene products discreetly available to any student who needs them.

The idea is so good it’s taking them to Hershey next month as part of a nationwide program for student projects that help others.

The project is part of SkillsUSA, a student organization that develops leadership skills that highlight what students learn in career and technical education programs. SkillsUSA students compete against thousands of students from across the country.

“We wanted to come up with something unique to help students with things their families might not be able to provide,” said Mayne, a sophomore carpentry student who built the cabinet from scratch.

“We knew we wanted to do the Caring Cabinet, but didn’t know what the contents of it would be. We surveyed students to learn what we needed to do to make it impactful so that students would actually use it.”

The trio will present their project April 4 during the 2024 SkillsUSA PA State Conference in Hershey. If they do well, they could move on to the national conference in Georgia in June.

“If we won and went on to nationals, that would be huge in showing so many people how big of a need there is for students,” said O’Neill, who is studying advertising design at Beattie.

The teens surveyed their peers and got 200 responses before setting off to create a discreet solution to meet needs. It was that survey that showed the need at the school was greater than the students were aware.

“We want to help students,” said Schaeffer, a senior. “Obviously, this can be brought to any school or community, but we wanted to start with helping students at A.W. Beattie that might be in need. We want to help students who are struggling, especially because you never really know who is struggling.”

Schaeffer is in his third year studying sports medicine. He helped determine what foods and beverages to stock that would provide the most nutrition. The teens said they hoped to tackle the challenge of food insecurity.

“For this SkillsUSA competition, you have to start by creating a community service project from scratch,” Schaeffer said. “The aim is to provide students with items that they might not have in their home life. We’ll do it in a way that no one else would know what they’re getting to avoid embarrassment or judgment.”

O’Neill’s role was to design the branding. She came up with the logo and created the survey and graphics.

Schaeffer would love to see the Caring Cabinet developed at Deer Lakes, as well as other regional schools. He has been writing letters to solicit donations from area business in hopes the project will be sustainable.

O’Neill said the group talked a lot about how they could impact students who might lack basic necessities.

“Our adviser talked to us about how, when she was younger, she didn’t have a lot and could have used this type of resource,” O’Neill said. “Together, as we learned about how great of a need there is for students, we came up with the Caring Cabinet to help students in small ways to give them an easier life.”