The Hearts and Hands service club decorated care packages for a homeless shelter during their meeting today in preparation for the packages’ distribution this weekend.

“This Saturday, we are having a dinner for 65 homeless men at St. Mark’s [Lutheran Church],” junior Sarah Mahnke-Baum said. “My family and I normally make care packages, so I asked if they wanted to help out and decorate the bags.”

The club added colorful designs and words of encouragement to the exterior of the packages.

“On each of them I put an inspiring message because most of these people are looked down upon, and I don’t think that it is very nice that they are,” sophomore Ixchel Boivin said. “I think that it is important to acknowledge and appreciate the stuff that we have because other people may not have as much.”

As a service club, Hearts and Hands engages in a number of community activities.

“We held a dinner at the Ronald McDonald House and we are going to do that again,” club founder Victoria Bernhart said. “We are also going to have an In-N-Out lunch, raising money to provide water for a family for life.”

The club decorated 65 bags during their lunch meeting, according to Mahnke-Baum.

“I’ve been a part of this project ever since I was little,” Mahnke-Baum said. “It’s just a really rewarding feeling helping out.”