In January, Ellis Elementary held a Homeless C.A.R.E. Package Project that was created by their Community and Respect at Ellis (C.A.R.E.) Team. Lead by fifth-grade teacher Melissa Mak and organized by the student leadership team, Ellis donated multiple boxes of wish list items from Sunnyvale’s Winter Shelter’s website that included toothbrushes and toothpaste, shaving cream and razors, deodorant, hand sanitizer, laundry soap, towels, and t-shirts. Once collected, leadership students and their parents delivered items to the shelter.
As one student said, “It feels really good to give to someone who needs basic items. I didn’t realize what I had until I saw what other people didn’t have.”
Teaching students how to be compassionate to people in need is one of the goals of the leadership team at Ellis and this was a great way to make that happen. Other schools are encouraged to create a similar project and can see what items the shelter needs by going to their website: https://www.homefirstscc.org/donate/
Article was written by Kim Moya, an SDC teacher at Ellis.
