Junior Taylor Mayo creates and distributes care packages to homeless people in downtown Indy

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The average price of a home in Indiana is $139,900, however, helping others who can’t afford one is priceless.

    Junior Taylor Mayo has been putting together care packages and giving them to the homeless for two years. She gives them out four to five times a year in Indianapolis and Castleton and makes around 30 packages for each trip.

    “I would always go downtown Indy to help out and, obviously, there were always homeless people around asking for money and it just made me really upset,” Mayo said. “Every corner, there was someone.”

    Mayo decided during her freshman year to do something to help those living on the street.

    “It was around Thanksgiving, and everyone needs food, so I decided to put together care packages,” Mayo said. “So I started doing that every few months.”

    There were 5,863 people living on the street in Indianapolis alone in 2015 according to the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority.

    “I feel like some people don’t give [people on the streets] money because they think they’ll go spend it on drugs or alcohol,” Mayo said.

    Although some homeless people struggle with addiction, statistics show that others live on the street because of financial issues.

    “One time I saw a veteran and it made me so upset, I started crying,” Mayo said. “I just think that it’s important to do all you can even if you’re one of those people that feels like ‘if I give this person money, they’re just going to go spend it on something’ you can always give them something they can use.”

    Mayo’s parents help her fill the packages with many different items including food, clothes and motivational quotes.

     “We went to Goodwill once and got like 30 sweatshirts to put in [the packages],” Mayo said.

    Mayo likes to include things you wouldn’t normally plan on giving someone.

    “I get my orthodontist to donate toothbrushes and stuff,” Mayo said.

        Mayo’s good deed has rubbed off on other people as well. She says her dad and neighbor keep a few packages in their cars just in case they run into someone. Mayo has also started taking friends along with her.

    “I met [Mayo] at a Key Club event, and she told me how did care packages,” junior Garret Russell said. “I said how I’ve always wanted to do that, and she said I could come with her.”

    Russell went with Mayo on one of her trips and says it is something he plans on doing again on his own.

    “I want to change other people’s lives, and it always makes me feel good knowing that I can do something for other people,” Russell said.

    The two friends encountered many people on their outing but one person stood out.

    “There was this lady who told us her whole story,” Mayo said. “She was just

really sweet and she was like, ‘If you ever need anything, I’m always here’ which I thought was really sweet because she’s sitting here and she doesn’t have anything but she’s willing to help me.”

    Both Mayo and Russell agree that this experience has changed them for the better.

    “I’ve learned to be more thankful for what I have,” Mayo said. “I go out there and I see these people then I get to go home after that and they don’t have anywhere to go.”

    Doing things as simple as saying “hello” could make someone’s day, week or month.

     “There’s not much I can do,” Mayo said. “But everything helps.”