This week we’re spotlighting our interns. As part of Intern Week, we wanted to feature a few of them doing meaningful work on the ground in our community, showing up for their neighbors with care and dignity. Below, our high school interns and Director of Strategy and Innovation share their reflections from a recent outreach morning.
Zion
Today we filled bags with water and bananas. We went to parks, the beach and street corners. We passed the bags out to men and women that were experiencing homelessness. They were grateful for the things we gave them. I felt good passing out the bags, It made me proud to help people.
Justice
Today we packed things for people experiencing homelessness. We packed bananas and water for them. We went to John Prince Park, the Boynton Beach Inlet and the Beach and passed them out to people standing on corners. I felt good handing them out and I really liked how I was giving back to the people.
Robin
Today was a significant milestone. I went out on my first outreach backpack excursion in Palm Beach County, Florida, with two student interns, Justice and Zion. We had our “You Are Flawless “ backpacks filled with cold-water bottles and fresh bananas, we set out to spread Flawless kindness and resources.
Our journey took us through three local parks, two beach areas, and along the neighboring roadsides. Justice and Zion stepped into this space with remarkable empathy and maturity, treating every person we encountered with the dignity they deserve.
There is a dramatic difference between preparation and execution. When we were sitting together, simply placing bottles of water and bananas into the bags, the task felt mechanical, routine, and straightforward. It was a logistics checklist. We knew the numbers, we knew the route, and we knew the destination.
But what none of us, including myself, fully realized in those moments of prep was what we were about to feel once we hit the pavement.
The moment a packed bag left your hands and went into the hands of a human being living on a roadside or a park bench, the simplicity vanished. Suddenly, that minor logistics task transformed into a profound moment of human reality. For Justice, Zion, and me, the physical weight of the backpacks was nothing compared to the emotion of seeing the relief, the gratitude, and the vulnerability of the people we met.
It was a powerful reminder that you can plan for the logistics of outreach, but you can never truly prepare your heart for the raw, humbling reality of connecting with people in their moment of greatest need.
Navigating the unknown also required us to be highly intentional. When stepping onto the roadsides and into spaces where people are in survival mode, there can be an element of unpredictable reality.
Yet, despite that quiet underlying tension and the uncertainty of how each encounter would go, Justice and Zion never wavered. They pushed past their own hesitation and acted with an exceptional level of dignity, respect, and genuine kindness. Watching them balance that necessary situational awareness with pure compassion was incredibly moving. They didn’t let apprehension harden their approach; instead, they showed up as a calming, respectful presence for every single person we encountered.
This first excursion reinforced a fundamental truth: impactful community work isn’t just about large-scale systemic strategy; it is about the quiet, ground-level moments of human connection. I am incredibly proud of the dedication Justice and Zion displayed today, and I look forward to many more.
