Altamont student earns national award

Altamont School student Ethan Hill has been named a winner of the 2022 Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes. The Barron Prize annually honors 25 outstanding young leaders in the U.S. who have made a significant positive impact on people, their communities and the environment. Ten thousand dollars is awarded to each of the top fifteen winners to support their service work or higher education.

Ethan created Ethan’s Heart Bags4Blessings to support individuals experiencing homelessness in Birmingham. Since 2017, he and his team have packed and distributed nearly 2,000 survival care bags containing items such as a sleeping bag, cold weather clothing, first aid supplies, food and hygiene products.

Ethan works to develop relationships with the people he serves and to refer them to shelters and support services. Most days on his way home from school, Ethan and his parents drive around area parks and homeless camps to check on the estimated 300 people living there. They distribute essentials from a supply kept in their car or return later to help with specific requests. He also partners with local police, who carry his duffel bags and supplies in patrol cars to distribute in areas unsafe for him to visit.

I don’t focus on why a person became homeless. I just look at what I can do to make life a little easier for them.

Ethan Hill

Each December, Ethan organizes more than 100 volunteers from across the state to pack hundreds of duffel bags, then he and his team serve breakfast in a local park and distribute the supplies. Ethan has also aided a homeless veteran in transitioning to permanent housing and has partnered with a company that makes cots to offer them for free to the people he serves.

Ethan began his work at age 6 after noticing a homeless man, whom he now knows as Mr. Marcus, living under a freeway. He researched “emergency needs of homeless individuals,” used his Christmas money to purchase essential items and gifted them to Mr. Marcus and others living nearby.

“Those without addresses are disregarded, criminalized and judged, but they’re people who want to be seen, loved and supported,” Hill said. “I don’t focus on why a person became homeless. I just look at what I can do to make life a little easier for them.”

The Barron Prize, founded in 2001, has honored more than 500 young people who reflect the great diversity of America. All of them demonstrate heroic qualities like courage, compassion and perseverance as they work to help their communities or protect the planet.

To donate to Ethan’s Heart Bags4Blessings or learn more about volunteer opportunities, go to ethansheartbham.org.

– Submitted by Sean Flynt, The Altamont School.