Number of Participants: 300
Hours Donated: 1
Value of Time Served: $2,535
Event Type: Children & Youth
Sport: Schools
Date: January 2, 2019
Location:
Sag Harbor
NY, USA
About:
Before school closed for the break, Sag Harbor Elementary School students worked together to make the holiday season a bit brighter for dozens of children in need in the community. Gift ideas were first posted on the “mitten line,” and hung on the way into the school’s gymnasium. Schoolmates and their families then purchased the gifts and brought them to the school with the paper mittens attached. Many Sag Harbor students removed gifts from their own wish lists to enable the purchases for other children.
More than 300 gifts were collected in December, from socks to “big-ticket” items like bicycles, and the effort received support from faculty, staff, students, families and members of the community. “One of the most important aspects of our mitten line is that it was accessible to everyone who wanted to help,” said Michelle Grant, school counselor, who helped spearhead the project. As they return to school this week, she said the students are talking about the items they happily crossed off their lists, and that warms her heart.
Ms. Grant added that the recipients of the gifts were extremely grateful and expressed their deep appreciation when volunteers delivered their gifts. “It is most evident when families who were assisted in the past reached out to me to see how they could help, now that things are more financially stable for them.”