Every year, elementary-aged students at the Montessori Children’s Academy of Short Hills vote on a charity that they’d like to support and this year FPE received the honor.
Their project involved conducting a drive for children’s hats, gloves, and gently used coats. What was special about the Academy’s involvement is that they wove the project throughout their curriculum so the children were able to experience every facet of the drive.
Besides choosing the charity, during computer class the children designed the posters, flyers and promotional materials they would need to procure donations. Further, the students collected fabric, made patterns and sewed drawstring bags used to package the goods. Lastly, they learned about assembly lines and used the lesson to sort the hats, gloves, and mittens, package them in the bags and distribute the donations.
According to the elementary teachers, “When the students were choosing a community service project in the fall they felt that collecting hats, scarves, gloves, and other clothing items for Family Promise Essex was very important, so people could keep warm. They were glad they picked this project because of the extremely cold winter we had this year. They were very proud of what they accomplished and how many people they helped.”
FPE has distributed many of these darling bags to children in our Emergency Shelter and Prevention & Stabilization Programs. They’re thankful to have what they need to keep warm as they go to school each day.
