Alisha Zhao is out to save Portland’s homeless youth.

The sophomore is president and founder of Lincoln’s Hope for the Homeless club, which seeks to eradicate stereotypes surrounding homelessness and ending it altogether in the Portland community. They partner with Portland Homeless Family Solutions, a non-profit that provides safe shelters for families without homes and helps them to get back on their feet. The club has raised over $1000 for the cause through bracelet fundraisers. It has also held winter drives, collecting food, clothes and feminine hygiene products, and created holiday cards for homeless families.

Zhao does not see her work to achieve these things  as a sacrifice.

“As cheesy as it may sound, volunteering itself has been the most rewarding experience I’ve had in my life,” she said. “I’ve made lasting relationships with everybody I’ve interacted with.”

Zhao first got the idea for the club freshman year when she was volunteering at PHFS. “I met a two-year-old named Lucas,” she said. “He always had a smile on his face and whenever I stepped into a the shelter, his face would light up and he would say, “Asha!” asking to play.”

All the club’s work has not gone unnoticed. KATU News interviewed Zhao and other club members as part of its “Kids doing good things” series.

Even after everything that the club has done, Zhao’s image for the club is still not fulfilled. “The project is to achieve a nonprofit status and create a volunteer-run day care for homeless babies while also doubling up as a tutoring center for homeless youth to receive academic support,” she said, citing Oregon’s weak education system as an impediment to impoverished children.

“Our true mission is to really make a lasting impact in our community to carry on when we all graduate, she said. “It is amazing what a group of high school students can achieve.”