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Elementary schools and food pantry collaborate to help Puerto Rico

Oct 26, 2017 | Lifestyles

After seeing updates about the impact a recent hurricane had on Puerto Rico night after night on the news, Mary Lou Dietrich wanted to find a way for the West Seneca Food Pantry to lend a helping hand.

“I knew how simple it would be to collect for them,” she said outside of Allendale Elementary School in West Seneca one morning in late October. “The best thing I thought of was to collaborate with the schools because the kids get excited and the parents want to help.”

Dietrich reached out to the five elementary schools in the West Seneca Central School District as well as St. John Vianney and Queen of Heaven to collect items such as toothbrushes, diapers, food and more.

Around the same time Dietrich reached out to the schools, Gabriella Wysocki, a fifth grade student at West Elementary, emailed her principal asking if the Wildcats could collect items to help those who lost so much due to the hurricane.

“With everything going on at the beginning of the school year I didn’t know if Principal Frawley would say yes or if anyone would donate,” Wysocki said. “It was really nice of everyone who donated. I think they put themselves in the position of the people who were affected. How would you feel if everything was gone and destroyed? It was a really good deed.”

In just about a week the seven schools were able to fill a U-Haul.

“Some of the boxes with toothpaste and toothbrushes had 200 to 300 things in it,” Dietrich said cheerfully. “The kids did so much.”

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