With her days filled with school, cheer, student council, and her busy schedule, junior Ashlyn Dolan finds a way to give back to her community and be a person for others.
Along with being a member of numerous other teen boards, Ashlyn wanted to do something more this year to help those in need with the organization Focus on Home. Focus on Home is an organization that works with families around Oklahoma to transition out of homelessness by providing families with everything they need to live in a new home.
“My dad has been involved with Focus on Home for a while now and has always told me the many ways that Focus on Home provides to others, so when he told me that there was no longer a teen board,” junior Ashlyn Dolan said. I saw it as a great opportunity.”
Reviving the Focus on Home teen board, Dolan saw the opportunity as one she could not pass up. While the teen board used to exist, it was no longer active until fall of 2023, but Dolan hopes to build it back up to its former glory.
“My goal for this teen board is in contrast to previous years, it will stay consistent and prevail after I graduate,” Dolan said. “I hope that this teen board will encourage students here to always strive to do service for the community and learn the many benefits of doing so.”
Once she got the idea of reviving the teen board, the challenge to get people involved, plan events, and get a teen board organized began. She is not unfamiliar with planning events or leading a group of people with the help of her many leadership roles, but even with all that experience adversity still came.
“I originally had planned to be able to coordinate a drive with the school for lamps, chairs, towels, etc; however, I was informed that the school could not sponsor another drive this year,” Dolan said “This was a challenge because I had initially planned for this to be the project that the teen board would focus on planning, but I had to instead come up with a different way to do the drive.”
By helping pursue Focus on Home’s mission, Dolan carries out the goal of the organization to help families struggling to get back into comfortable homes, by getting not only adults who have more opportunity to give back, but getting teens to realize they can have a positive impact on the community as well.
“I hope that we can assist many families with finding a home that is suitable and comfortable for them,” Dolan said. “I take Focus on Home’s mission and apply it to my life by opening my eyes to all that I am grateful to have and the ways I can help others.”
