Senior Shannon Alte found a way to turn her passion into a profit and make a difference for the kids of Hope Unlimited in Brazil. Since a mission trip in 2018, Alte has made and sold scrunchies with the proceeds going towards Hope Unlimited.

“[Hope Unlimited] takes street children and children who don’t have families off the streets and they give them a place to live and hope in general,” Alte said.

Hope Unlimited is an organization that has worked to break the cycle of poverty in Brazil by taking children off the streets, giving them homes, and enrolling them in schools. At these schools, the students are given the tools and skills to be successful. Currently, Hope Unlimited has a 98% graduation rate.

Alte first learned about this organization five years ago when missionary Corien Smith came to her church to talk about Hope Unlimited. After hearing about Hope Unlimited, Shannon instantly felt connected to the organization and she attended a missions trip in 2018.  

“I was fortunate enough to get a lot of support from our church for the trip. All the money went for the mission we did, whatever we did, and after I came back, I kinda revised and made it a bit more organized,” Alte said. 

Alte was inspired by this trip to start selling scrunchies and to donate the money she made to Hope Unlimited. 

“For Hope Unlimited, that really was the first idea. I saw that scrunchies were easy to make and popular,” Alte said. “For all the scrunchies and all the fabric I buy, I take my own money. I don’t [pay] myself.”        

Alte sells three types of scrunchies: mystery scrunchies, “twosie” scrunchies, and “puppy” scrunchies, for $2, $4 and $8. Proceeds from Alte’s business go towards anything from basic necessities for Hope Unlimited children to the organization’s travel expenses. Alte says part of the reason her proceeds go towards Hope Unlimited is because she wants to join the organization to continue her charity work one day.

“I guess I just really like Hope Unlimited. I plan on going to college for social work, and I hope to work for Hope Unlimited or at least to start my career there,” said Alte. “I hope to go [back to Brazil] next summer; I’ll probably be interning somebody,” said Alte. 

Alte hopes to be apart of Hope Unlimited in the near future to help these children in Brazil. Until then, she plans to continue selling her scrunchies.

If you want to buy scrunchies and help her cause, check out her website listed below:

https://sites.google.com/view/scrunchiesforhope/home