This week’s Hometown Hero, presented by Hendrick Southpoint, is Kayla Ferro from Hearts of the Homeless International.

Hearts for the Homeless International works to provide weekly health screenings to people experiencing homelessness. The organization initially began as club at the University of Central Florida — where Ferro was once a student — but has now expanded to numerous cities across the country.

“We just started in December 2019,” said Ferro, who is also the treasurer of the national organization, “so we’re fairly new and we served about 90 homeless individuals as a nonprofit. As a whole across the United States, we’ve served over 3,000.”

In the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak, Hearts for the Homeless International has worked to help those experiencing homelessness.

“We went out and we started handing out free packets, bars of soap and water and then a little information guide — kind of what was going on because a few of them were unaware of the pandemic.”

The organization is also working to install portable hand-washing stations to provide people with a way to wash their hands before eating their meals.

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