(above) The Jefferson Early Act has 34 members and teacher advisors Joanna Leach; Tiffany Winters and Caitlin Ferraro. It includes students up through 5th grade. Principal Dr. Susie Hung is proud of this club (in photo at far right).
Jefferson School 5th grade Rotary Early Act Club
On Tuesday, June 25th, 2019, eleven fifth graders from the Jefferson Early Act Club visited their sponsoring organization, The Rotary Club of Westfield to describe the service projects they are doing. They put on a power point presentation, and each student spoke about a project they were involved with.
Rotary has a series of service clubs for each grade level: Early Act for elementary and middle schools; Interact club for High Schools and Rotaract Club for colleges. Each level feeds into the next, then eventually into a Rotary Club. These form a worldwide network and are found in every country of the world.
The Jefferson Early Act has 34 members and teacher advisors Joanna Leach; Tiffany Winters and Caitlin Ferraro. It includes students up through 5th grade. Principal Dr. Susie Hung is proud of this club. Next year the students look forward to going to Edison Intermediate school and joining the Interact Club there.
The service projects the Early Act club has done throughout the year include the following:
At Halloween they collect slightly used costumes and masks, new unopened face makeup, bags, and candy treats to distribute to the less fortunate.
The Thanksgiving Food Drive collected over 100 items to give away.
The club maintains a learning garden to learn how to plant and grow and nurture plants, then they donate the vegetables to the food bank.
At Christmas time they collected over 200 gifts, including a tree and decorations and donated them to students in Irvington.
On Arbor Day, April 26th, the students planted 14 trees at Jefferson School with the help of The Rotary Club of Westfield and the Township Dept of Public Works.
In the late spring they donate swimming items to Bernice’s Place in Elizabeth Coalition to House the Homeless: swimming suits, goggles, bags, towels, etc.
The students are working with the Grace Presbyterian Church to collect food for a summer food drive.
The students said that the reason they joined the Early Act Club was to help people in need.
The Rotary Club of Westfield meets the first three Tuesdays of the month for lunch, 12:15 p.m., at the Westfield Area Y. Guests are always welcome. For more information contact Secretary Dr. D. Michael Hart drmhart@yahoo.com.
Submitted by Dr. D. Michael Hart
