By Tamsin Hurlbut

   “It’s just a nice way to go out and help people, especially people in our close community,” says junior Beckett Terell about his work volunteering with the homeless. 

   In November, Beckett and his father discovered a local group, AZ Hugs, that provides a meal and other services to those on the streets. Since then, Beckett has gone basically every Sunday from approximately 2 to 5. 

   He helps with anything needed, for example, giving people rides to shelters, helping a woman set up her bed in her new apartment and serving meals. 

   Beckett is committed to helping people, “you don’t need corporations or organizations, you just need some sack lunches, then you can go out and say, ‘are you hungry?’ to anyone you meet.” 

   Since the group is not a certified non-profit or a bona fide charitable organization, but simply a group of people helping each other, the City of Tempe police often makes Tempe Hugs to leave parks and pack up. But Beckett is not deterred, “We just have to keep seeing each other as people. It doesn’t matter a person’s situation, unhoused, addict, recovering, we just always call them a friend.”