Vets Ele. students make a difference for needy
KARL VILACOBA Veterans Memorial Elementary School fifth-graders Mary Margotta (l), Bryanne McMillen and Lisa Akerley make gift tag ribbons for a charitable project last week.
BY KARL VILACOBA
Staff Writer
BRICK — There are some lessons you can’t learn from a school book.
A group of fifth-graders at Veterans Memorial Elementary School gave their notebooks and writing hands a rest Oct. 23 to channel their energies toward helping their community. The students assembled care packages filled with personal hygiene products, snacks and other trinkets to be distributed to needy area seniors in observation of national Make A Difference Day.
"I think it’s great to do because you’re giving people things they don’t have, plus it’s fun," said fifth-grader Bryanne McMillen.
Make A Difference Day, which is observed Oct. 25, is a national day of helping others. An estimated 3 million volunteers took part last year.
The project drew contributions from throughout the school as collection barrels were placed in the front hallway from Oct. 14 to 23.
Teacher Gail Damiano said this is the second year the school has put the packages together. All told, the students compiled 38 packages, up from last year’s 32.
"You’re instilling in them a sense that we’re all here for one purpose — to help one another. This really is your life’s code," said Karen Szeliga, who oversaw the project along with Damiano.
The students formed two assembly lines to whip their packages together. In the first, items were divided and placed in bags in equal quantities. Another line, formed with McMillen and classmates Mary Margotta and Lisa Akerley, who were in charge of creating ornamental gift tag ribbons to attach to the bags.
"I didn’t care which job I got; I just wanted to help," Akerley said.