About Us

Our names are John, Jacob and Jessica Schuster.  We live in Raleigh, North Carolina and attend(ed) Raleigh Charter High School.  John graduated with highest honors in June 2017 and now attends the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, pursuing a degree in Business.  Jacob graduated with honors in June of 2019 and is now a Freshman at North Carolina State University majoring in Business. Jessica will graduate from Raleigh Charter High School in 2020.

Background

As we began to enter high school, we wanted to become more active in our community and find ways to make a difference in the lives of others.  To be even more meaningful, we wanted to help an organization that we had a personal connection to and we didn’t need to search far.  Our grandmother was raised at the Baptist Orphanage, whose many campuses are now known as the Baptist Children’s Homes of North Carolina (BCH).  All our lives, we have watched her work very hard to help BCH however she can and we have tried to follow her example by helping in small ways, like donating chore money to BCH or collecting canned goods for their annual food supply drive.  But we wanted to do more, so we reached out to the director of the BCH Kennedy Home in Kinston, NC to ask what their needs were.  The answer was pillows!

Every child who comes into care at BCH receives their own pillow.  When they and their families reach their goals and are reunited, they take their pillows with them, which creates a constant need.  So, The Pillow Project was born!  In the spring of 2015, thanks to the generosity of friends and neighbors, we were thrilled to provide BCH Kennedy Home with a year’s supply of pillows.  Since that first year, we have worked hard with a grassroots approach to grow the project and have expanded it to help all the other BCH campuses throughout North Carolina, as well as 2 safe-havens for women and their children who are victims of domestic violence and sexual assault and 4 homeless shelters in the Raleigh, NC vicinity.  In total, The Pillow Project has provided more than 3,600 pillows to those in need.

What We've Achieved

Year 1: 

  • Delivered a year's supply of pillows to the BCH Kennedy Home campus in Kinston, NC

  • 89 pillows donated

Year 2: 

  • Delivered a year's supply of pillows to 6 BCH Campuses throughout NC

  • 472 pillows donated

Year 3: 

  • Delivered a year's supply of pillows to all 8 BCH Campuses in NC

  • Delivered pillows to two safe havens for victims of domestic violence

    • Interact of Wake County

    • Harbor Shelter in Smithfield, NC

  • 686 pillows donated

Year 4:

  • Delivered a year’s supply of pillows to:

    • all 8 BCH Campuses in NC

    • Interact of Wake County

    • Harbor Shelter in Smithfield, NC

  • Added Urban Ministries’ Helen Wright Shelter for homeless women in Raleigh, NC

  • 951 pillows donated

Year 5:

  • Delivered a year’s supply of pillows to all previous organizations.

  • Added Salvation Army, Families Together and Family Promise homeless shelters in Raleigh, NC

  • Over 1400 pillows donated