Havre Public Schools plans to work with Neighbor in Need

At the Havre Public Schools Board of Trustees meeting Tuesday at Havre High School, the board voted in favor of working with My Neighbor in Need.

The school’s faction of My Neighbor in Need will be called Student in Need and aims for the same goal: to provide people a way to anonymously give to those in need.

The difference between Student in Need and My Neighbor in Need is that more of an emphasis is made on keeping those who need help anonymous.

My Neighbor in Need is a program in which people who need a little help with something like buying groceries or beds can send in their request to the program’s website. People looking to help someone out with a burden can visit the website and look at the requests, then anonymously donate to that community member’s cause.

My Neighbor in Need is being established in Havre by David Snuggs, the founder of the program, and Tuesday he visited the school board to pitch the idea of bringing the student version to the schools.

Student in Need will protect the identities of the students in two ways. Only teachers are allowed to submit on behalf of the students and are urged to keep the subject of the charity vague. Once the submission is received by the website, they will also make sure that there are little signs as to who the child is in the submission.

Student in Need has helped around 900 students already and the most requested items are winter apparel, a valuable commodity on the Hi-Line.

Once a benefactor contributes to a student, the teacher gives the gift to the student in a private and meaningful way, Snuggs said. One of the points is to not embarrass the child in front of his or her peers.

Snuggs said that the Student in Need program can be launched 10 days after he has launched the Neighbors in Need program.

The liaison for the Student in Need program will be Heather Adkins, the project services director.

The Neighbors in Need program will be kick-started in six weeks for the Havre area and Student in Need will begin shortly thereafter.