Meet Maura Cosgrove – Volunteer Coordinator at The Little Bit Foundation
Maura Cosgrove, a recent Bachelor of Educational Studies graduate, is in the business of gathering socks and underwear to support underserved children in St. Louis City and North County. Don’t be fooled, this is no small task. “Last year alone, The Little Bit Foundation gave out over 30,000 pairs of socks. Everyone thinks of school supplies and jackets to donate, but socks and underwear are our biggest need. You can tell if a child is not wearing a coat in the winter, but you can’t see if they are not wearing underwear or socks.”
The mission of The Little Bit Foundation is to break down barriers to learning for disadvantaged students living in the St. Louis area. Little Bit accomplishes this task by providing access to clothing, shoes, school supplies, health care services, and hygiene items. The Little Bit Foundation will “adopt” a school and communicate with a school liaison that can identify and place orders for specific student needs. Together, the agency and the school will set up shop, “Every school has a room we call a “boutique” with racks of clothes, coats, socks and underwear, and baggies filled with hygiene supplies. The school liaison then orders items such as uniforms, shoes, everyday clothing, back packs and school supplies that are tailored to each individual student’s needs. These items are delivered weekly throughout the school year.”
By partnering with UMSL’s eye clinic and SLU’s nursing school, The Little Bit Foundation even tackles health care in a resourceful way. “We aren’t experts at any of these resources, but we are able to serve as a convener of services and bring the experts into the schools to meet the needs of the student body. It’s so helpful because parents don’t need to think through the logistics and transportation of getting the child into the eye doctor…..instead, all that can be taken care of during their school day when the eye doctor visits.”
The massive undertaking of The Little Bit Foundation’s mission requires a lot of volunteers. “We have volunteers that work in our warehouse everyday preparing orders. We also have volunteers that deliver those orders to our schools every day. These volunteers work one-on-one with each child to ensure needs are met and to be a consistent caring presence in their lives. In addition to that, we have corporate and school groups of volunteers who come in and tackle projects in the warehouse. We are rooted by our volunteers, without them we wouldn’t be able to serve our 9,000 students in 31 schools.”
That’s where Maura is needed. Maura is the agency’s Volunteer Coordinator. She works in the warehouse every day, training and supervising volunteer groups who come to help where needed. “I run the groups and get them set up with a project. The groups vary from 5-50 people. But I also manage the daily volunteers who are regulars. In one day, we could have 400 orders that need to go out. We have around 3-5 volunteers that come every day of the week to fill these orders.”
When asked about how a Bachelor of Educational Studies helped prepare her for this position, she speaks about her capstone internship experience. “I completed my internship at Kingdom House, another non-profit organization in St. Louis. My responsibility there was very similar to my current responsibilities at Little Bit. I did a lot of community engagement with groups of volunteers….organizing their efforts, training and supervising.” Maura believes that her capstone experience translates to 100% of the career she wanted to have. “Without that experience on my resume, I don’t think I would have been qualified for my current position.”
Another aspect of the Bachelor of Educational Studies that Maura believes helps her immensely is the interpretation class. “My favorite course was the interpretation class. That class helped me learn how to tell a story. How to tweak the story according to the audience, by reading the room. Which is what I do every day for the groups that visit Little Bit.”
When asked about advice she would give to an undergraduate student, Maura encourages students to do research on their passion. “If there is something that interests you that is out of the realm of options, don’t be afraid to share that vision and push for what you are wanting the degree to do for you. The BES faculty were so open to what I wanted to make out of the degree. They are here to help you.”
Trackback from your site.