It took about a month, but the efforts of members of the Criminology and Criminal Justice Honor Society collected enough donated items to fill about four car trunks.

Wednesday morning, several of the students delivered gently-used clothing, hygiene items, camping goods and non-perishable food to the Salvation Army Corps Community Center on North Humphreys Street.

EASTER DISTRIBUTION

Part of the donations were kept at the Salvation Army and the balance was driven over to the Flagstaff Shelter Services on West Phoenix Avenue.

"We're so appreciative," said Captain Randy Hartt with the local Salvation Army. "I'm extremely grateful to CCJHS at NAU for all their hard work and for bringing us food, because we're desperate."

Hartt said the donated food will be put in food boxes and included with turkeys and be given out Wednesday and Thursday during the Easter distribution at the local Salvation Army headquarters.

SEEING A NEED

To gather donations, he honor society put out four collection barrels on campus and did a door-to-door collection in some apartment complexes.

"It was a good group decision," said Kelly Anderson, a senior criminal justice major at NAU who is president of the honor society. "We wanted to help out as much as we can because we knew there was a need."

Flagstaff Shelter Services began in 2006 with a vision of helping people in the Flagstaff community who had no safe place to go for shelter during the winter months.

From October until April, there are 30 beds for homeless men at the shelter and another four beds for women in a nearby hotel. No one under 18 years of age is served at the shelter.

Some of the items may end up at a women's shelter on Cottage Avenue.

"We have a history of donating whatever we can't use to our friends at Hope Cottage," said Todd Sherman, FSS director.

A SMALL CLUB

Hartt said the honor society club members came to him with the idea to collection food and other items.

The campus club is small, Anderson said, and has either criminal justice majors or minor who must have a cumulative GPA of 3.2 or higher to be in the group.

"We are the Delta chapter of Alpha Phi Sigma, a national honors society for criminology and criminal justice students," she added. "We do community service projects, host events and talk about our CCJ interests."

The faculty adviser for the society is Marianne Nielsen, who is a professor in the CCJ department at NAU.

Betsey Bruner can be reached at bbruner@azdailysun.com or 556-2255.

TO HELP

Salvation Army Corps Community Center

502 N. Humphreys St.

Call 774-1403, ext. 202 for Captain Hartt

Flagstaff Shelter Services

216 W. Phoenix Ave.

Call 225-2533