Westford Academy’s Global Medical Brigades (GMB) club has collaborated with the Lowell Transitional Living Center to hold a clothing and supply drive. The club held a meeting on Tuesday, March 17 to create care kits that included hygiene products and warm clothes to send to the center in order to help unhoused adults.
GMB was created in 2025 by juniors Aarshia Bhattacharyya, Amitha Shanmuganath, and Sohana Arani to create an environment that develops students’ medical skills without the stress of competition and to serve the community. According to the founders, the club is determined to inform and collaborate with communities to achieve their personal medical goals while also inspiring others to do the same. With this in mind, they came up with the Warm Hearts Drive.
According to Arani, many cabinet members wanted to address the homelessness and health within the community, which caused them to research homeless shelters in the area, leading them to the Lowell Transitional Living Center. The non-profit center needed any supplies which could help them provide emergency shelter and meals to hundreds of unhoused adults.
“We were definitely able to [collect a variety of materials] and we were able to make a lot of kits […] and [the Center] was super excited to be receiving donations,” Shanmuganath said.
After reaching out to the center, they communicated back and forth to confirm items the center would accept and what their most essential needs were. Once the club confirmed where the kits would be traveling, they started advertising through their Instagram page at the beginning of February, hoping to entice people to donate any items that they could.
Once the club had all of the donations, they were ready to assemble the kits. During the March 17 meeting, kits were assembled, including items from blankets and hand warmers to bandages and gauze pads by anyone who showed up to help.
“Our club focuses on improving health and helping people directly,” Arani said. “This drive is basically doing that on a local level by giving people hygiene and basic medical supplies they need.”
Anyone who attended the meeting and helped put the care kits together was able to earn volunteer hours.
According to research done by the GMB, hypothermia and untreated injuries are leading causes of death in the homeless population of the United States, which is why the club felt so strongly about this cause and the drive.
“I hope members get real volunteer experience, learn more about homelessness and health issues within our community, build teamwork and organizing skills with each other, and feel good about actually making an impact by helping people,” Arani said.
The GMB will be donating the kits that they made to the Lowell Transitional Living Center on Thursday, March 19.
