December 7, 2007
Eastwood Students Deliver
Students at Eastwood Elementary School continued an almost two-decade tradition when they delivered boxes of Thanksgiving food to their sister school, Hawthorne Elementary.
Eastwood students are all smiles about the food
delivery to their sister school. |
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The Eastwood Student Council organizes the annual food drive, and this year, when even more Hawthorne families are in need, tripled the amount of food it collected a year ago.
Council members also presented a $300 check to Bruce Klonowski, principal at Hawthorne, to purchase Thanksgiving turkeys and hams to go along with the canned goods they provided. Students raised the $300 during Eastwood's Hat Day, in which students paid a dollar to wear a hat to school.
Eastwood has been delivering the holiday meals to Hawthorne for the past 19 years, a tradition that started the year after Roosevelt principal Delbert Detwiler, now deceased, moved to Eastwood and Klonowski, Detwiler's assistant principal at Roosevelt, moved to Hawthorne. |
"When we split up, we said, 'What can we do for each other,'" Klonowski said. "We became sister schools and began partnering on several activities. This was one of them.
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"It's a great tradition," he continued. "One school helping another is just tremendous. It shows our students how much the community cares about them."
Klonowski said the food items delivered the Friday before Thanksgiving served more than 60 Hawthorne families, chosen based on financial need. He added he's especially proud of his Hawthorne students and families, who also contributed canned goods to the effort, even though many of them have little to spare. Hawthorne's free and reduced lunch rate, a gauge of the neighborhood's poverty rate, is at 96 percent.
Eastwood fifth grader Sarah Freehafer, a student council member, said Eastwood students are excited each year to collect food for their sister school. "We are used to having nice Thanksgiving meals," Sarah explained. "We want our friends at Hawthorne to have a nice meal too. We want them to enjoy their holiday."
Ann Vondervellen, a member of Eastwood's Parent Teacher Association, pointed out many schools collect food for the needy during the holiday season. She added giving their food to Hawthorne, Eastwood's sister school, is a natural choice for the Eastwood students.
"It's an opportunity for them to help other kids right here in their own community, kids they see at district activities like ball games and summer school," Vondervellen said. "I think it means more to them that they are helping their peers." |
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Hawthorne students unload one of
seven vanloads of food. |
Eastwood students present Hawthorne Principal
Bruce Klonowski with a check to purchase
Thanksgiving turkeys and hams. |
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Kelly Kielce, student council advisor, agreed. "We do a lot of projects at Eastwood throughout the year, but this is definitely our biggest one," Kielce said. "I think the kids really get behind it because it is for local children. They know where the food is going, who it's going to benefit.
"Also, the students get to deliver the items right to the school, to the children who will have a happier Thanksgiving because of it," Kielce added. "That really means a lot to them."
That was obvious by the smiles on the Eastwood students' faces as they helped their Hawthorne peers unload the seven vanloads of food boxes. Their smiles were mirrored by the Hawthorne students as they deposited the boxes in a storage room that was growing smaller and smaller by the minute.
Those same Hawthorne students, again with smiles, would later help Klonowski sort the food items into Thanksgiving baskets and reload them into their classmates' vehicles. The students understood they all had much to be thankful for. |
Klonowski said the Eastwood students collected so much food this year, some of it will also be used to provide Christmas dinners for Hawthorne families.
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