Jacksonville Mail Handler on mission to help youth

Jacksonville P&DC Mail Handler LaWan Siplin has a mission: to provide dorm supplies to challenged youth going off to college.

She accomplishes this through her non-profit organization called Transformations Collegiate Collective, Inc. (TCC), a community based non-profit organization that assists college bound high school seniors with supplies needed to outfit their college dorm roo m. 

Siplin has been doing this for three years and each year the mission gets bigger and bigger which has necessitated a move into a larger storage unit to accommodate all the supplies. 

In 2010 as Siplin prepared for her oldest daughter to move to a college campus, she noticed that many of the students didn’t have the necessary items to make dorm life easier. Things such as bedding, towels, eating utensils, etc. were missing for the students leaving home for the first time.
  
Siplin discovered that a lack of finances played a big part in this situation . The need of others turned into a vision, in a three-year period, which now assists more than 100 high school seniors in the Duval County Public Schools in Jacksonville, FL.

This past year the First Annual College Tribute Giveaway became a reality for this single mother of three daughters.  Working with school guidance counselors, the students were nominated based on need, acceptance into a college or university and plans to live in on-campus housing.  

"I feel the students worked hard and in a lot of instances defied the odds of graduating from high school much less attending college, so I wanted to lessen the burden on these students that needed assistance," Siplin said. "I'm proud of the work I'm doing to assist college students."

Ms. Siplin has been working tirelessly to ensure that the next giveaway, slated for Saturday, May 17, 2014, is a huge success.  She begins early each year, purchasing  sale items and bargaining with store personnel, paid from her own contribution and donations from individuals, businesses, organizations, volunteers and her church to make this College Tribute Giveaway a successful day for the Jacksonville community.  

Of course she uses the USPS for all of the mailing needs for TCC.  Ms. Siplin says, “To have is to give and to give is to have enough to give. All I require is that the students from the class of 2013 pay it forward to the next class by volunteering at the next giveaway.”  

Next year her organization will help more than100 students in the class of 2014.  Siplin is definitely making a difference in her community.