Students Seize Opportunities to Help Local Communities

ST. JAMES, NY - Since the beginning of October, students from St. James’ Harbor Country Day School have been seizing the spirit of the holiday season and making tremendous efforts to help members of their surrounding communities.

Led by the school’s Student Council and advisor Lynda McKenna, students have raised significant funds to support breast cancer research, collected more than 500 items of food for a local food pantry, and will be conducting a toy drive in December for local children.

“As an independent school, Harbor Country Day School is in a unique position to incorporate community service into our curriculum and our culture,” said Head of School John Cissel. “Our students, parents, and faculty and staff place tremendous value on reaching out to help our neighbors in need, and I couldn’t be more proud of our Student Council for taking the lead on these incredible efforts and giving us a course to follow.”

During the month of October -- Breast Cancer Awareness Month -- Student Council members sold bracelets to collect money to donate to the Carol M. Baldwin Breast Cancer Research Fund.

Inspired by Harbor students Elizabeth and Grace, who collected more than $100 by selling hot chocolate in their neighborhood, the Student Council raised $400 more for the organization.

The combined donations will go toward the Carol M. Baldwin Breast Cancer Research Fund’s support of breast cancer research at Stony Brook Medicine.

On November 1, the school kicked off its annual Thanksgiving food drive to support the Smithtown Emergency Food Pantry, which has been serving Smithtown and the surrounding communities for nearly 35 years.

In just two weeks, students collected more than 500 items of perishable goods for the food pantry -- the most the school has collected in the 15-plus years it has been supporting the food pantry.

Upon delivering the donations, the students also helped volunteers unpack and sort the food.

To incentivize students to donate to the food drive, Student Council President Arjun Venkatesh vowed to dress as a turkey if students were able to collect more than 500 items of food.

“Sometimes people need help to get something, anything, to eat. And I feel that we should do everything we can to provide food for them because it is unfair that they don't have anything to eat, while we have so much,” said Arjun. “So when I saw that we surpassed our goal, I was so proud of everyone at Harbor, and I was really happy to hold up my end of the bargain by wearing the costume.”

Finally, on November 26, Harbor Country Day began collections for the Suffolk County Toys for Tots toy drive.

In addition to collecting donations from its students and their families, Harbor Country Day serves as a drop-off location for the local community. Also, the John W. Cooke V.F.W. Post 395 of St. James makes an annual donation to the Harbor Country Day toy drive under the guidance of Mike Guido, who is former employee of Harbor Country Day and a member of the John W. Cooke V.F.W. Post 395.

This year marks the 20th year Harbor Country Day has participated in the toy drive.

In regards to Harbor Country Day’s community outreach efforts, Mr. Cissel added: “Compassion, empathy, generosity -- these are sentiments that at times can be lost in academic settings, especially as students are expected to meet increasingly high standards, teachers are pressured to ‘teach to the test,’ and families are busier than ever. I’m tremendously pleased to see that our students not only listen to what we’re teaching them, but that they are internalizing it and putting it into practice as they continuously reach out to help others in the community.”

Photos courtesy of the Harbor Country Day School