Senior pharmacy student Daphne Boggs makes it her mission to help people.
That’s why she founded her own chapter of nonprofit Hot Mess Express in Springfield, Missouri. The group consists entirely of volunteers, and they clean homes for free.
“Being in the healthcare field, this was something I was very excited about because I like to help people,” she said. “Your living facility makes such a big impact on your wellbeing. [For example], if my room is messy, then I’m stressed.”
Boggs said they complete about one ‘mission’ every month. On top of that, she works 40 hours a week doing pharmaceutical practice for her degree.
“Honestly, I just try to balance my outside life with my school life because that makes me feel like a human being in grad school,” Boggs said. “I enjoy pharmacy, but I also don’t want that to be my entire life. So finding other things that help me connect with people makes my quality of life so much better.”
Boggs said she stumbled across Hot Mess Express on TikTok, watching videos from the creator of the organization, Jen Hamilton. She said she felt inspired to create her own local community of women who help each other out.
In her original TikTok with over 200,000 likes, Hamilton said that she created Hot Mess Express after seeing an anonymous Facebook post from a mother who was overwhelmed with cleaning. She reached out, and with a team of around ten volunteers, they cleaned her whole house for free.
“When we come in, it’s our goal to leave these women with a more peaceful existence,” Hamilton said in one video. “And almost as important as the work we do is the byproduct of being able to connect with other women.”
She handed off the Hot Mess Express presidency to Brittinie Tran, a mom of three who also balances her leadership with running her podcast, Girl, Same. She strives to normalize women asking for help and said that her goal is to create a village of support for everyone.
“Our goal is to be accessible for all women across the country,” said Tran. “We would love for anybody needing help to simply look us up, and we are close enough for them so we’re always welcoming new chapters and volunteers.”
Tran recognizes that for students, balancing school, work and other passions can leave cleanliness to fall by the wayside.
“I struggled when I was in college. I could have used a friend to come over and just help me tackle some of this stuff,” said Tran. “It was just kind of suffocating me a little bit.”
Chaos coordinator of the Springfield chapter of Hot Mess Express, Breanna Wilson, works at Mercy Hospital and joined Boggs’ chapter nearly a month after its creation. She works as part of the nomination committee, deciding the women for each month’s project.
“This is my side project, working at a nonprofit. I like to have something else that I’m putting my energy towards,” she said. “Something that is bigger than me that can help others.”
She recommends the nonprofit to students, as the organization is low-barrier and does not require qualifications before joining. They only meet for a few hours once a month, and volunteers can work as often as their schedule allows.
Although each chapters’ guidelines differ, the nonprofit is typically run by only women. In Springfield though, Bogg’s chapter encourages “all girly pops and people in-between.”
Boggs said she loves to volunteer and offer support to her community. She advises students to find something they are passionate about and learn how to use it to better their local populations. “Everyone who we have helped so far has been super thankful for the experience,” Boggs said. “I know for myself, helping someone else makes me feel better. It helps me, it helps them and it helps the community as a whole.
Boggs plans on applying for residency after graduation and moving out of the state, so she founded her executive team to keep her chapter alive. She also hopes to get involved in a local chapter in the future.
Learn more about Daphne’s chapter on their Facebook page or at Hot Mess Express.
