JENKS, Okla. — A Jenks high schooler founded a nonprofit that collects clothes to give to foster kids in honor of her late foster brother.
After her foster brother passed away in November, Jenks high schooler Ragon Francy found a way to honor him by donating clothes to foster kids.
“We focus on two things primarily, the first is quality, very you know name brand clothing for teens in foster care, and the second is teaching teens like myself to be more involved in our community and to give up things that we love for others who need it more,” she said .
Francy started Kee's Kloset in December after her foster brother, Keeonal Dawkins, passed away.
“ So when he passed away last November, we thought a great way to honor his memory is to create a closet for kids who are in the same situation he was ,” she said.
Keeonal , or Kee as Ragon called him, was a lover of clothes no matter the cost.
“My mom reminded me one time, we were kind of trying to teach him transportation and money to get from Stillwater to here, Tulsa, and he found a really nice Louie belt online and decided to take the money for that bus ticket and buy the Louie instead and stay home,” she said.
Now, to keep his memory alive, Francy founded Kee's Kloset, a nonprofit that collects clothes to give to foster kids.
“The way Kee's Kloset is designed for this is when kids, when teens and foster care need clothing, their lawyer can take their measurements and go into the closet and pick out what they need and they can just leave, free of cost, free of anything, no hassle,” she said.
Francy said all Tulsa County foster teens are represented by their lawyers at Tulsa County Public Defenders or Tulsa lawyers for children.
So, all foster teens have access to Kee’s Kloset.
“I work for the Tulsa county public defender's office, and they can reach out to me for their teenagers, and I can come to the closet and get them clothing or the lawyers at TLC, T ulsa’s lawyers for children, their teens can reach out to them and they can have free access to the closet,” Francy said.
On Saturday, Kee's Kloset held its first donation day.
What were once empty racks are now full of clothes, all for foster kids.
“We have received so much,” Francy said.
She said after the donation day, they filled the Kee's K loset room and began filling another.
“I think the first order of business is going to be figuring out where we are going to put all the extra clothes, so we will probably r ent out a room or keep it at the office here and keep it in storage,” she said.
Francy said once clothes start being picked up, she will add clothes from storage.
“I am really excited to see how this is going to take off and the people that this is going to reach, I really do hope that these kids, these teens are going to get the clothes that they want and the clothes that they deserve,” she said.
Francy said she plan s on having more donation days and hopes to expand to other counties.
If you have clothes you would like donate , you can drop them off at Tulsa La wyers for Children off of H ighway 169 and 11 th .
Kee's K loset asks that the clothes, shoes and accessories donated are in excellent condition.
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