Doing an informal survey... any/all help appreciated.

Does your parent group run any service or giving programs (for causes outside of your school)? Year-round or one time? I'm thinking things like a coat drive or a food drive or a backpack prorgam or anything else like that.

Would love a yes or no and any general details you care to provide.

Thanks,

Tim

We did a huge effort after Katrina called backpack plus. We collected backpacks with checks inside and then found a school in LA that was absorbing the children displaced by the hurricane. We were able to send over 100 backpacks and put 2000 dollars into a Walmart account nearby for the teachers to shop for needed supplies to absorb the children's educational needs. We then took the remaining 2000 dollars and adopted 4 classrooms effected by the storm in the area down south.

The next year we did a toy drive for a orphanage in Afghanistan and used contacts within DoD to get the gently used toys (21 boxes of them) to the kids.

For "payment" during babysitting programs for school conferences we request donations of mac and cheese boxes to give to our local food bank and get some of the kids together to make that run once we've made all of our collections.

d

We did a coin collection after the Tsunami and then again after Katrina. We raised about $1300 each time in just change. I was amazed as we are a very poor school.

We do community-related drives in our schools throughout the year. Food drives in partnership with our local food bank or our community food bank. Operation Jersey Cares to send supplies to troops. We collect toys for the pediatric unit of our hospital. Each school in our district takes a different month for this.

My personal favorite is our Adopt-a-Grandparent program during the holidays. We work with our town's Senior Services department. Gifts requested are gift cards to grocery stores, thermal underwear, sweat shirts and pants, hats, mittens, gloves, etc. Nothing extravagant but real necessities that our senior citizens can use. We also encourage students to include a note or card with their first name ONLY to add a personal touch. The town decides which seniors have a need for the donated items. Many parents are surprised that we have needy senior citizens in our (relatively) affluent town.

We did a walk-a-thon after Katrina- and raised funds that we gave to the Red Cross.
We also run a Giving tree every year before Christmas-- but in our school, we support our families that need extra help during that time of year-- but other school in our district do Toys for tots and other worthy causes-- we also did toys for tots and families from the school last year.

Our Student Council does several throughout the year-- one being PAWS for a cause where they collect change and donate it to PAWS. We have a Jump rope For Heart and the whole school school jumps rope even if they are not donating-- so they get exercise as well as doing good.
And then our Librarian using a the candy grams and donates all that money to the Kidney foundation. There are many worthwhile causes to contribute too. Fox Mom

Yes, we do a Food Drive for the local food bank- our sixth year I believe. We also sponsor a Pennies for Patients drive in the spring- our third year. Jump Rope for Heart, Uniform Drive (this does help our families but we invite a neighoring charter school to participate) Summer Free Lunch Program; there is a week in the spring during state testing the Juinors and Seniors participate in various community service tasks in the area.