The 17-year-old senior at Cambridge Rindge and Latin is honored for the hard work he is doing to help the homeless.
“Homeless people aren’t any different from normal people, they just don’t happen to be living in a home right now,” said Michael Scarlett.
Michael is the president to the school’s Club 4, a group that prepares dinner twice a week at the Harvard Square Homeless Shelter.
The students buy the food, make it, serve it, and then sit down and eat with the homeless guests.
“When you see a homeless person on the street you don’t think twice when you pass them, but it’s really nice to volunteer at a shelter and eat a meal with these people,” said Michael.
Michael said hearing their stories and learning how they became homeless, was a real eye-opening experience for him!
“Everyone is vulnerable to this. A lot of the people in the shelter, it’s not their fault at all they ended up there,” he said.
The club prepares dinner from November through April. And this is no fast food. The students make a hot appetizer, a full dinner, plus a dessert.
Club 4 raises the money to buy the food, 150 dollars a week, and they have to learn how to stretch a buck. They feed 40 people for just 75 dollars!
Student volunteers line up to help.
“You feel good after you do it, doing something good, Club 4 has this sense of community. The whole experience is life changing,” said Abby Borron, a friend of Michael’s.
Michael is researching what’s being done, and not done, to end homelessness for his senior project.
“I always leave having learned something. I’ve been able to look at the bigger picture and understand more about the issue at hand,” said Michael.
Michael has been writing letters to congress in hopes of making a difference.