Boyce Middle School's Holiday Tradition Of Helping Continues

UPPER ST. CLAIR, PA - The tradition has spanned more than 20 years at Boyce Middle School. Dubbed the Friendship Shoebox, it involves each of the school’s 645 students being asked to fill a shoebox with small gifts to be distributed to children in need.

The project, organized by school counselors Amy Antonio and Vicki Cayuela, will benefit children in Washington County through Northwestern Human Services. The gift-wrapped shoeboxes contain items such as school and craft supplies or treats such as gum, lollipops or candy.

Boyce students don’t just package up the boxes. They form a Friendship Shoebox chain in which the boxes are passed from one student to the next from guidance classroom to the delivery truck.

“The reason that we form the human chain is that it gives all of our students the opportunity to participate in this project,” Cayuela said in a district release. “Some of our students are not able to make a gift for another child due to their personal situations. They participate in the passing of the boxes just like any student who made a box.”

In addition to the shoebox project, the Boyce student council recently collected nearly 300 boxes of cereal to benefit the South Hills Interfaith Movement, which provides food, clothing and services to people in need in Pittsburgh’s southern suburban communities.

Photos via Upper St. Clair School District.