When 10-year-old Audra Tammaro rode past Hope Haven Gospel Mission in Lewiston on her way to see her grandmother, she was always dismayed by what she saw: homeless or nearly-homeless men and women in ragged clothes, sometimes asking for donations.

“They’re always on the side of the road, and I don’t really like that. I feel bad,” she said.

Then, while watching a summer baseball game, Audra got an idea. The Red Sox were holding a donation drive to get new, white socks to homeless people in the Boston area, and she realized someone could provide clothes and other essentials to the homeless people she saw outside Hope Haven.

And who better to help, Audra thought, than herself?

“I went and was telling my mom about what was going on,” she said. “I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time, but she has never really been so sure on it. So now she was.”

For the last three months, the Mechanic Falls fifth-grader has been raising money, saving money and collecting donations to stuff 25 tote bags with clothing, toiletries and other necessities for people who use the mission at 209 Lincoln St. She delivered the bags Friday.

“We get donations from time to time but not from 10-year-old girls,” said Executive Director Paul McLaughlin, who heard about the gift for the first time Friday. “That just blesses my heart.”

Audra began raising money and collecting donations in September. She started with an e-mail to her place of worship, the Oxford Advent Christian Church in Oxford. That netted about $75. A bake sale earned her another $130. She sold magnets at a craft fair, saved her allowance, collected bottles and rolled spare change, giving her about $100 more.

Local businesses, including Lake Region Awards, a Norway trophy shop, donated T-shirts and sweatshirts. Hannaford Supermarket in Oxford donated the tote bags. What Audra couldn’t get donated – winter hats, toothpaste, toothbrushes and other toiletries – she bought.

On Thursday, while other kids were sledding and skiing during their snow day, she spent hours washing and folding the clothes and packing 25 tote bags.

“Packing all the bags was very hard,” she said.

On Friday afternoon, Audra stuffed her family’s car with the totes and 25 hand-written Christmas cards and delivered them to Hope Haven. With donations down by 75 percent and more people in need this year, mission officials said the bags would be welcome.

“I know, personally, it means a lot to these people to get items like that, to be warm. Especially since we’ve had such a bad winter and it’s not even winter yet,” said Susan McLaughlin, Paul McLaughlin’s wife and a ministry leader. “I’ve been just overwhelmed with people needing things, and I’ve been unable to get those kind of things to them.”

She could use, she said, enough stuff for 250 to 300 people. But the 25 totes would make a dent in that need.

Audra hoped so.

“I think they’ll like it,” she said. “I just hope it will help out.”