Helping Out For the Holidays: Mitchell Students Get In the Giving Spirit

Thanks to the efforts of students this week, needy residents in Woodbury will have some extra food on their plates during this holiday season.

Mitchell students filled more than 50 bins with canned goods and pantry items during their week-long school-wide food drive, and as Principal MaryLou Torre explained it, this initiative was kid-driven and well-executed by the Mitchell School Student Council.

"As far as I know, this is the first school-wide project like this," Torre said. "It made me ecstatic watching the children come into school in the morning with smiles on their faces carrying boxes and heavy bags to put in their classroom bins."

The Student Council members wanted a project to help others this holiday season and came up with the idea of a school-wide drive when they stopped to think about what others don’t have.

"We thought about all the people who go to sleep hungry and decided we should ask everyone at school to bring in some cans of food so that they don’t have to go to bed hungry," said fifth grader Malia Piscitelli, Mitchell’s Student Council President.

Vice president and fifth grader Lydia Davidowitz realizes many people go without, especially during the holiday season.

"I think for some people it is worse this time of the year," she said. "It is great to know that our idea of a food drive can come through to help them."

During the week, as they watched the bins of donations stack up in the foyer near the gym, the council members were amazed at how much food was brought in for this event.

"Every single class had at least 50 cans of food in their bins outside their room," said Angela Groody. "We probably had more than 700 cans of food. That is good."

The student council, with the help of fifth grade teacher Beth Orwick who advises the group, labeled classroom boxes and developed tally sheets. Council representatives assigned to various classrooms kept tabs on the week-long progress.

The classroom with the most items donated will receive school-wide recognition down the road.

Glen Dale-Jameson said he was happy to do his part in helping the student council organize the food drive.

"It feels good helping out the community," said Dale-Jameson, a fifth grader.

He added that if people can, they should help out the food bank.

"There really are a lot of people who use the food bank here," said Dale-Jameson.

For Bob Taylor, president of the Community Services Council of Woodbury, the actions of the student community at Mitchell School are quite gratifying.

"One of the most heartening experiences in my service with the Community Services Council has been the willingness of our young people to step up time and again to help our neighbors in need in Woodbury," Taylor said. "The students, teachers and families have offered an especially meaningful gift for this holiday season in showing their commitment to this community through this wonderfully successful food drive."

The boxes were picked up on the afternoon of Friday, Dec. 16, and looking at the stacks of them, Taylor said they will go a long way to help replenish the supplies at the Woodbury Food Bank, already low from usage at Thanksgiving.

He gave kudos and thanks to all who helped make this food drive a success.

"Their generous spirit and hard work provide a great example of how each of us, through our individual actions, together can make a deep and lasting difference in building a community of caring and compassion," Taylor said.