Tulip Grove Elementary students give back to area children

Thursday, Dec. 13, 2007

Tulip Grove Elementary students give back to area children

Donated items will go to Hyattsville home for young mothers and children

by Megan King | Staff Writer

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For the members of the Student Government Association at Tulip Grove Elementary, the holiday season is a time to give back to their less-fortunate peers, and this year, students are donating to St. Ann’s Infant and Maternity Home, a Hyattsville home for children and young mothers.

Among the items requested by the home are car seats, sheets, children’s clothing, gift cards and toiletry items. The students will continue collecting items until Monday, and they will be delivered to St. Ann’s before the holiday break.

The SGA and Generating Outstanding Leadership Development committee together organized the collection. The students organize quarterly community service events for the school to participate in. As SGA adviser and guidance counselor, Caren McCalla emphasizes the importance of community service by involving students in projects that help other children.

‘‘We want SGA to be focused on seeking out community needs and what they can do to help,” McCalla said.

This is the third holiday season the school has collected items for St. Ann’s. Among some of the students’ other service projects have been collecting money for cancer research and for a family of a student with sickle-cell anemia.

The school is planning next quarter to ‘‘adopt” a local soldier serving in Iraq and send him letters.

McCalla said even the younger students at Tulip Grove can understand the importance of giving to others when they know they are giving to other children who are in need.

Fourth-grader Holly Sampson, the SGA vice president, said the students wanted to reach out to others.

‘‘Our school really cares about helping others and we know that [some children] do not have all this and we want to help them,” she said.

Fifth-grader Jesse Lopez has helped coordinate the project as the school’s GOLD representative.

‘‘Tulip Grove has been helping St. Ann’s for three years and it’s been really fun. We just want to help out,” he said.

Lisa Sheehan, director of development for St. Ann’s, said the items donated help the center have supplies for mothers and children who need them, and the center appreciates the donations it receives from the community.

‘‘It just helps our staff have things on hand when we get people in and save our resources. And it’s also nice to know the community supports us, so it’s a big help,” Sheehan said.

Among the most requested items at the center are toys, diapers, wipes, toiletries for the mothers, strollers, car seats, and bedding, Sheehan said.

E-mail Megan King at mking@gazette.net.