Members of the Blue Creek Elementary School community banded together to help provide 120 pairs of pajamas for children less fortunate at the Schenectady Children’s Shelter at Northeast Parent and Child Society. All it took was the motivation of six students from the Sixth Grade Student Council.
Brook Greco, a sixth-grade music teacher and head of the sixth-grade student council, said she got the idea to do a pajama drive from her friend Patricia Carlson, a third-grade teacher, after she had seen something on the Internet about the pajama program. Greco said she went back to her students and asked if they wanted to participate. They thought it was a great idea.
They helped generate a letter to send to everyone in the school, then created bins to collect the pajamas. When they got the pajamas, they collected them, sorted them and matched the bottoms with the tops, she said. `I contacted the Schenectady Children’s Shelter at Northeast Parent and Child Society and drove the pajamas over there. The people were just beside themselves.`
It was a combined effort of staff from Blue Creek and also its families. Greco said all of the kids in the school had a blast donating the pajamas and the staff had fun comparing the different pajamas they had purchased to donate to the drive. One of the conditions were that the pajamas had to be new, Greco said, and it was mainly because all the kids at the shelter ever get are used materials.
`They were saying that the kids don’t have anything new,` she said. `They are always hand-me downs.`
The drive was a part of the school’s Peaceable School Program, which is in part run by the sixth grade student council. Greco said the school made sure to keep the drive within the Blue Creek community and to keep the collection bins in a central location, such as the main lobby.
`We don’t want to alienate the children if they can’t donate,` she said. `If a child wants to put something in the bin when they get into school, that’s fine, but we don’t want to say this classroom collected more than another classroom.`
The drive was conducted back in April, but Greco said the pajamas were not delivered until recently. She said she would like to do the drive again next year but sometime in February, as to avoid the Christmas rush. It would help keep the children warm in comfortable pajamas throughout the cold winter months.
Eugene White, spokesperson for Northeast Parent and Child Society, said the donation by the Blue Creek students filled a particular need the residents at the shelter had. He said the student council had contacted the organization and worked with them to figure out how they could help.
`They contacted us and found and specific need and filled that need,` he said. `It’s never an obvious answer… Every child’s need is different. Many kids arrive with nothing. Just the clothes on their back.`
White said the organization was very thankful for such a large donation made by the students at Blue Creek and that it is something it encourages more students to do.
`It was a really great gift,` he said. `We’re very grateful to the students at Blue Creek. They did something vital for our residents. Whenever a young student gets involved in something philanthropic, it’s a seed that grows.`
White said that it always helps when people contact Northeast Parent and Child Society to see what particular needs have to be filled. You can do so by visiting www.neparentchild.org/goblue to see what you can do to get involved.
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