Baskets given to area agencies Dec.16
By Ruth Luse
On Dec. 16, the students and staff of Hopewell Elementary School donated over 30 Giving Baskets to local agencies.
The students purchased items such as slipper socks, books, puzzles, games, slippers, gloves, personal hygiene products, cookies, candy, snack foods, crayons and coloring books throughout the first half of December to make Comfort Baskets, Adult Fun & Games Baskets, Baskets of Joy, and Child Fun & Games Baskets. These baskets were donated to Featherbed Rest Home, Morris Hall Nursing Home, Interfaith Hospitality Network, Womanspace, and Habitat for Humanity.
All of these agencies serve adults and children, many of whom have no immediate family. Others have been forced out of their homes to a more peaceful setting, are homeless, or are working, but find themselves still below the poverty line and struggling to provide for their families.
Agency representatives attended a school meeting with the students recently to accept the baskets. The meeting began with the entire student body singing a version of "The Pledge of Allegiance." Hannah Solomon, a fifth-grade student, read the book, "The Teddy Bear," by David McPhail. The book tells the story of a little boy, a lost Teddy Bear, and a homeless man.
Principal Christine Laquidara invited class representatives to present their baskets. The school meeting concluded with a school thank-you to Sandy Porter, a paraprofessional who has been with the Hopewell Valley Regional School District for over 18 years. She is retiring at the end of this year.
Ms. Porter was presented with flowers by first-grade student Aurora Kochersperger and several other students and staff members.