Cleaning Out The Closet — For Good
When Lilie Murray heard about the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals in her honors ecology class, she wondered how she could contribute to reaching them. These goals included big tasks, such as ending poverty, providing young people with a quality education, and creating more sustainable cities and communities. But Lilie believed even as a high school sophomore she could be a part of the solution, and began Portsmouth Community Closet in response.
Since then, Portsmouth Community Closet has launched multiple initiatives in line with the Sustainable Development Goals laid out by the UN. First, Lilie began gathering new or gently used clothing for people in need on the Seacoast. Those donations were then distributed at Gosling Meadows, a public housing neighborhood in Portsmouth.
While working with community members at Gosling Meadows, Lilie learned that residents at the facility were struggling to clean their clothes after the neighborhood laundromat shut down. This challenge would become Portsmouth Community Closet’s second project. Lilie organized a successful fundraiser that resulted in eight families receiving washers and dryers at Gosling Meadows.
But that wouldn’t be the end of her work with Gosling Meadows’ residents. Later, Lilie began a summer program at Greenleaf Recreation Center in Portsmouth, which works with children from the Gosling Meadows community. She and her classmates took the children on trips, which included blueberry picking, rock climbing, and team building activities.
Now as a senior in high school, Lilie has wrapped up yet another project aimed at bettering the Portsmouth community. With the help of her classmates, she has designed and built a colorful reading nook in the Greenleaf Recreation Center, giving the children a quiet place to read and learn.
I am pleased to name Lilie Murray of Rye as October’s Granite Stater of the Month. I am proud of her commitment to bettering our state, and I look forward to seeing all that she goes on to accomplish.
