Dear UCLA Alumni Association:

I wanted to take a moment to talk about the valiant efforts of alumni Tamara Lewis to help provide clothing, toiletries and amenities to a group of men, women and children who are homeless in Los Angeles.

For more than 10 years, Tamara has been working with corporate donors, friends, family members and more to provide backpacks for the homeless each year during the holidays. What makes this philanthropic project so unique is that Tamara is providing more than 1,500 backpacks each year to homeless individuals in our city. Many times I have written a check to an organization hoping funds are disseminated to those in need. Tamara’s backpack for the homeless campaign eliminates all of the red tape and bureaucracy associated with simply writing a check.

By collecting backpacks and filling them with needed socks, gloves, shoes, clothes and toiletries, she is making a direct impact in the lives of individuals who are disenfranchised in our city. This does not negate the need for financial contributions, rather to highlight her grass roots approach to actually doing something tangible that makes a difference in her community.

I started volunteering to secure backpacks seven years ago. In that time, I have seen Tamara take a leadership role to create a non-profit organization that raises funds from generous companies; coordinate with key homeless organizations in the city and attract and train as many as 300 volunteers to help disseminate backpacks on an annual basis. Each year families bring their young children to be a part of the solution to help prepare our youth for civic responsibility.

My goal in writing this is to highlight the courage, strength and power of an unsung hero in our community. It’s an added bonus that Tamara Lewis is an alumnus of UCLA.

Bonique Edwards, Class of 1994
Kaleidoscope Consulting Group