BY BRYAN SABELLA
Staff Writer
METUCHEN — Americans across the country, moved by the enormity of the recent tsunami tragedy in southeast Asia, are digging deep to help out.
And students in the Metuchen schools are pitching in as well.
Both the high school and the Edgar Middle School are conducting fund-raising drives for UNICEF, and the Campbell School is doing a “coffee can” drive.
Campbell Principal Robert Gugliara said he and his wife decided over the holidays to send letters home to the parents or guardians of each student, asking them to keep an empty coffee can around the house, fill it with spare change, and eventually send the cans back to school.
“It’s convenient, and that’s the point,” Gugliara said. “They’re common, easy to carry and they hold a lot of money.”
The proceeds will be sent to organizations like the International Red Cross and Oxfam, an international organization that combats poverty and provides emergency relief services, he said.
Gugliara visited each classroom after the holidays to urge students and their families to get involved.
“The very next day, I already had two full cans on my desk,” Gugliara said.
Campbell students and parents have a history of raising money for those in need, he said.
“We’ve collected money, food, clothing, eyeglasses … every year we do a Thanksgiving drive,” Gugliara said.
Students also raise money for UNICEF every year around Halloween.
“I think we sent them about $2,000 this year,” Gugliara said.”
Campbell school connected with a school in Florida, also named Campbell back in the 1990s, to raise money for relief in the wake of Hurricane Andrew’s devastation, he said.
Campbell also hooked up with another school in Oklahoma to raise money to plant memorial trees following the April 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City.
Some of the parents from that school even visited Campbell on their travels to the east coast to express their gratitude, Gugliara said.
The recurring theme of charity has been a part of his 15-year tenure at Campbell, Gugliara said.
“It helps teach our children very important lessons,” he said. “The idea of asking the kids to be generous is nothing new, it’s not a surprise to them. They and their parents will be, as always.”
This time, the fund-raising drive is a little more open-ended than usual, Gugliara said. The letter asks the students and their families to keep collecting spare change until March 21.
“Our thinking is, it’s not a time issue,” he said. “[The victims] are going to need things for quite a while.”