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West Seneca East Middle School gives back this holiday season

Dec 22, 2017 | Lifestyles

Students at West Seneca East Middle School have been busy organizing school-wide donation events this holiday season to help those in need. Yorkers, Student Council and National Junior Honor Society (NJHS) clubs led the school to collect everything from cash to canned goods and personal care items. Club advisors had the pleasure of working with such compassionate and caring students, while the entire school, students and staff responded generously.

​The Yorkers club, advisor Paul Glieco and teacher Doug Weiss organized a food drive to support the West Seneca Lions Club. The Yorkers added a little healthy competition by providing a celebratory breakfast to the homeroom that collected the most donations. Students, Ryan Tymorek, Ryan Wawrzeniec, Jacob Wawrzeniec, Molly Graves, Samantha Accurso, Alissa Schoenhardt and Daisy Cook spent their time after school making rounds to each homeroom, packing and transporting all of the food items for pick up. Altogether, East Middle donated 1,600 canned and non-perishable goods to support local families and veterans that live in the West Seneca community.

Student Council, along with their advisor Michael Lake, coordinated a variety of activities to help raise funds and collect items to aid the hurricane relief effort for Puerto Rico. Teachers and students participated in a theme week by donating money for the perk of wearing a hat or dressing down. They also tried their luck to win a gift card by donating money or a personal care item. East Middle filled eight boxes with items like Clorox wipes, paper towels, soap and toothpaste. They also collected and donated hundreds of dollars. The personal care items were delivered to the Connecticut Street Armory to be shipped to Puerto Rico. Some were put into “Welcome Baskets” along with gift cards to grocery and clothing stores to be given to families from Puerto Rico newly arriving in Buffalo after the hurricane. It was a great success!

NJHS students and advisor Elissa Gianadda used money collected through fundraising to purchase items to help brighten the day of local sick children and their families. They made grab-and-go bags for Ronald McDonald House in Buffalo, and organization that provides transportation and a home environment near a hospital for families with sick or injured children. The students decorated the bags with cheerful, uplifting messages and filled them with snacks for families to take for long, difficult days at the hospital.

The NJHS students also bought fabric and made fleece-tie blankets with the help of teachers Mari Garry and Linda Cullen. Ten blankets were gifted to children who are a part of Stone’s Buddies at Oishei Children’s Hospital, a program that works with the community to support families of children with chronic illness. Making fleece-tie blankets is a favorite tradition among honor society students and brings smiles to East Middle students as much as it does to the Stone’s Buddies children.

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