Disabled volunteers put together gift bags for shelters in Walnut Creek, California.

Disabled volunteers have been hard at work putting together gift bags for those in need in Walnut Creek, California.

Working on behalf of the non-profit organisation Las Trampas, members stocked up white paper bags with hotel-sized shampoo, conditioner, body wash, lotion and cards.

Ariel Vellet, who is a keen volunteer with the charity, told Silicon Valley Mercury News: "It's really fun, picking up the shampoo from the hotels and bringing them back here and putting them in bags.

"It makes me feel good to know that we are helping other people feel clean."

Each of the bags is then delivered to local charities, including the Monument Crisis Center, Shelter Inc and other social programs across the area.

As part of the Reuse, Recycle, Repeat scheme volunteers collected donated new, partially used and empty travel-sized toiletry bottles from East Bay hotels and cleaned, refilled and packaged them for the gift bags.

The Las Trampas charity has been offering adults with developmental disabilities volunteering opportunities for over five decades, provide job training skills and supporting independent and semi-independent living.

Associate executive director of the charity, Ron Kilgore, told the newspaper: "A lot of what we do is integrating clients into the community in as many ways as we can. We are not here (at Las Trampas) all day. We are in the community."

This is certainly evident in this latest project, which was brought about by financial advisory and investment management firm, Rudney Associates, which noticed that a large proportion of travel-size toiletries offered by hotels often go to waste.

Instead hotels and housekeeping staff are now working alongside the volunteers and local community to help those less fortunate.

Since starting in 2010, the Las Trampas scheme has collected 21,000 bottles from hotels and produced and delivered over 7,000 gift bags.

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