8th-grader creates closet at school so classmates can have new clothes and supplies


Whether it's a new dress shirt or a pack of pencils, students at Port Allen Middle School in Port Allen, Louisiana, just have to head over to PAMs Pantry to pick up what they need.
Chase Neyland-Square, 13, is an eighth-grader at Port Allen Middle School, and came up with the idea for PAMs Pantry while participating in the Student Program for Arts, Recreation, and Knowledge. Kids think up ways to improve the school, and some — like PAMs Pantry and extending recess — are implemented.
Neyland-Square told WAFB he realized he is "fortunate to have things that other people don't have, and I look at it as, 'How would I feel in that situation?'" That's why he worked to set up PAMs Pantry in the gym, which is filled with donated dresses, pants, shirts, jackets, and stacks and stacks of school supplies and hygiene items. PAMs Pantry recently helped a family that lost everything in a house fire. "They came in and got a whole new closet full of clothes," Neyland-Square said. Giving back comes naturally to Neyland-Square, his mom, Amanda, told Good Morning America; he hosts dinners for senior citizens and has donated 700 pairs of socks to local homeless people. Catherine Garcia
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