School brings cheer to 20 local families

Staff Writer

By jennifer dome

School brings
cheer to 20 local families

SOUTH RIVER — The PTA is collecting goods for the annual Adopt-a-Family program for families with children in the South River school district.

The program, now in its 12th year, will benefit 20 families and 82 children, with ages ranging from 18 days to 17 years, according to Donna Geesey, Middle School PTA president and corresponding secretary at the elementary school.

Beginning in November, goods were collected for families who have children in the district’s schools, Geesey said. Each family agrees to participate, she said, and then local organizations and individuals sponsor children from the families.

The program provides the gift buyers with the name, age and size of the child. They try to give at least one new outfit, two toys and a set of pajamas for each child, Geesey said. The children are always given a new coat, gloves, a hat and socks, she said.

The program also provides the family with a holiday meal, complete with a frozen turkey. Other staples and non-perishable foods such as canned goods, pasta, cereals and peanut butter are donated for the families as well, Geesey said.

The food items are boxed and the gifts are wrapped and tagged, and then delivered to the families closer to the holidays. This year, Geesey said the last of the goods will be collected the weekend of Dec. 15-16 and deliveries are expected to take place on Dec. 20.

Volunteers — usually members of the PTA and other parents of South River students — help deliver the goods with Santa Claus, she said. The donations are mostly stored in her home, Geesey said. However, because of the volume of donations, other community members have offered additional storage space.

Geesey has been involved with the program for 11 years and said the effect on the volunteers is profound. She also said that people shopping for gifts to donate realize that buying for a needy child is not as easy as their other holiday shopping may be.

"You can’t just buy a teen-ager a CD because they may not have a CD player," Geesey said.

Many local organizations, including but not limited to the Policemen’s Benevolent Association, the Board of Education and numerous individuals in the community, provide donations for the Adopt-a-Family program, Geesey said. Recently, the South River Fire Department donated 100 smoke detectors to be given to the families, Fire Chief Russ Olsen said.

"We are very proud that we can help this program with the donation," Olsen said.

A local dentist also provides the children with new toothbrushes and toothpaste, Geesey said.

In order to make a donation, or for more information, call Geesey at (732) 390-8202.