East Mills Student Doing Her Part For Homeless

Nothing Deborah Huetter’s granddaughter does surprises her.

Since she was a baby, people have been telling Huetter they see a bright shining light glowing from the big heart of her granddaughter, Cloe Brown.

“She’s always wanted to put smiles on people’s faces,” Huetter said of her granddaughter. “She has this big generous heart and this awareness of other people’s needs. She has a desire to help people.”

So when the now 12-year-old Cloe decided she would put her considerable heart and mind to helping the homeless, Huetter wasn’t surprised one bit.

“She loves to help people,” Huetter said. “She’s been collecting clothes and stuff in the neighborhood for three years. She’s always having lemonade stands to raise money or buy things for people. She goes to the dollar store and makes gift bags for donating. She’s such a loving, giving person.”

Cloe got serious about her giving this fall. A seventh grader at East Mills Middle School, Cloe spends a lot of time at her grandparents in Omaha on weekends. That’s where she started the Attitude of Gratitude Program. Her goal was to collect winter coats, warm clothing and non-perishable food for Omaha’s homeless population. Her first drive collected seven large plastic bags of clothing, coats, hats, gloves. She donated all of it to the Lydia House in Omaha.

Huetter first suggested calling her granddaughter’s efforts, “The Attitude of Gratitude Project.” Cloe loved the sentiment and added her own tweak.

“I thought Attitude of Gratitude Program sounded better,” she said.

The idea germinated on a weekend trip to an Omaha grocery store with her grandfather, Tony Huetter. Cloe saw an apparently homeless man on the median, huddled up in the bitter cold, holding a sign seeking help. She convinced her grandfather to buy the man a blanket but when the two returned to give it to him, he was gone.

But the idea stuck.

“We were going to Hy-Vee and I had seen some people on the street with their signs and they looked cold so I wanted to help them,” Cloe said.

She turned that initial disappointment into an action plan. She wrote her own flyer, organized a collection drive in her grandparents’ Omaha neighborhood near 90th and Pacific Street and began going door-to-door picking up items. She handed out nearly 40 flyers in all.

Cloe’s initial Attitude of Gratitude flyer was short and sweet: it stated who she was, listed what was needed and how to reach her to donate.

“My goal is to help the people who need it most…my second goal is to spread smiles across peoples faces,” the flyer read.

The response has been overwhelming.

With the help of Grandma and Grandpa, Cloe took in seven garbage bags brimming with winter clothes, blankets, non-perishable food and hand-warmers.

And the donations haven’t stopped since.

After word got out about Attitude of Gratitude, calls and donations poured in. Cloe and Huetter spent a recent weekend zig-zagging the metro area collecting items.

The Huetters’ living room is currently piled with more than 60 bags and boxes of donated items.

“I was very surprised by the donations we got,” Cloe said. “I thought we’d get eight or 10 bags, smaller ones. Because that’s what we got the first time I did this.”

Cloe had collected items before – for her church, for the Mills County Storehouse – but never on this scale, Huetter said.

“We’ve just been inundated with calls,” she said. “Call after call after call. People have been dropping clothes off. We went all over town, from north Omaha to Plattsmouth and Malvern. It’s almost overwhelming.”

The plan is to sort the items for distribution to several different Omaha-area charities, including the Open Door Mission.
Plans are also in the works for Cloe to assist with the St. John the Baptist Greek Orthodox Church elementary school coat drive later this month in Omaha.

Huetter said her granddaughter doesn’t do it for recognition. It’s just who she is.

“I believe we all are given special gifts and strengths and I think this is hers,” she said. “She’s using those gifts and developing them. She has an awareness and perception of need and the desire and generosity and compassion to use that gift. A lot of people have gifts but don’t ever use it. She uses her gift.”

The response has overwhelmed Cloe – and her grandparent’s home, the unofficial donation storage center. The huge amounts of donations are overflowing the Huetter’s living room.

Cloe hopes to partner with a local organization or church to help collect and streamline donations down the road.
But Attitude of Gratitude, she said, is here to stay.

“I’m thinking about for Christmas doing one where instead of clothes it’s old toys we collect for donation,” she said.