Cushman students donate clothes and sundries to local charity
Feb 26, 2022
Students and their parents load goods into their cars to be donated to the Gifts to Give organization in Acushnet on Feb. 18. Photos by: Morgan Beard
Gifts to Give CEO and Founder Jim Stevens shows the students a care package that is ready to be sent to a needy south coast family.
Students point to their names on the kindness tree, a Feinstein Foundation practice where students add a leaf each time they do a good deed for someone else.
Students carry out boxes of supplies to be donated.
More toothbrushes than a dentist’s office.
The students each get to pick out a book to take home with them.
Students at Dartmouth’s Cushman Elementary School celebrated Random Acts of Kindness Day on Feb. 17 by teaming up to give a special gift to local families in need.
The students brought in donations totaling 46 pairs of socks, 39 pairs of underwear, 83 toothbrushes, 64 packs of toothbrushes, 166 books, and 29 pairs of shoes to be given to Acushnet charity Gifts to Give, which will distribute the supplies to South Coast families in need.
“We’re really trying to teach how to be kind at a young age,” said Early Childhood Director Justine Dale, explaining that Cushman is a Feinstein Leadership School, a program that revolves around doing good deeds for the school, the community, and for your family.
The school had an assembly on Thursday to celebrate the holiday and present the students with a final count of the supplies they raised and reward their kindness with a visit from GiGi the Penguin, the mascot of their math program.
The next day, a group of students — whose parents volunteered to transport the donation items to Gifts to Give — helped load the boxes of goods into their cars and carry them into the facility.
When their donations were delivered, the generous kiddos got to take a tour of the facility led by the charity’s CEO and founder, Jim Stevens.
“I want to thank you but I also want you to understand that there are 80,000 kids living in poverty in the South Coast,” he said, as the tour got underway. “You’re very lucky to have everything you need.”
Stevens explained to the students how social workers in the region can request care packages from his organization which volunteers then assemble from donations like theirs and distribute to the families in need.
“What you did was absolutely amazing,” he said.
Next, Stevens showed the kids the area where volunteers get donated toys ready for distribution by cleaning them, replacing missing parts from their extensive parts bins, and fitting them with new batteries.
He reminded the students that the organization relies on volunteers and that community-minded young people like themselves are often especially good at working with toys.
At the end of the tour, the visiting students were invited to pick out a book and a stuffed animal to take home.
