3,000 items collected for donation to Operation Shoebox

(above, l-r) Sorya Chen, Hayden Goldstein, Sevastian Hernandez, and Max Sobin. Student Leaders start putting items in a big bin to be brought to Operation Shoebox.

3,000 items collected for Operation Shoebox

Warren Township Schools

4th and 5th-grade student leaders at Central School in Warren Township, NJ, organized and promoted a school-wide fundraiser in support of Operation Shoebox during the week of January 9, 2023. 

Operation Shoebox is an organization dedicated to collecting donated supplies and shipping care packages to U.S. troops based in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other countries around the world.

To select the fundraising initiative, the Student Leaders discussed their top priorities. Conveniently, many students shared a desire to fundraise for Operation Shoebox. Ghina AlJadda, a 5th-grade student leader, shared, “It’s an important fundraiser because we got to help American troops. It was cool to see our project help so many people.”

(above, l-r) James Botte, Lorenzo Gramaglia, Mateo Torres, Max Sobin, Ms. Pech, Farrah Hassimi, Hayden Goldstein and Savannah Branco. Student Leaders prepare items to be stored for the next day’s collection.

In an effort to promote the event, Student Leaders hung up posters throughout the school and made visits to classrooms to share the details of the fundraiser. To add a fun twist, Student Leaders sorted the items at recess and kept a running tally of the daily number of donations by grade. 

5th grade came out victorious with over 500 items donated during the week.

(above, l-r) Rod Hirsch, Savannah Branco, Leah Ferreira, Brandon May, Alisa Ianovska, Mateo Torres, and Finley Coon smile after successfully putting all the donations in the bed of the truck with a very grateful Mr. Hirsch.

On January 18, Rod Hirsch, the Executive Director of Operation Shoebox (NJ branch), picked up over 3,000 items from Central School, including deodorant, soap, batteries, sunscreen, toothpaste, socks, granola bars, and other essential items. Hirsch was thrilled with the quality and quantity of the donations and was eager to continue a partnership with the Central School community!

Group Leader Ms. Alyssa Pech would like to thank the amazing families, students, and teachers who donated to the event. For more information on Operation Shoebox or to donate, visit their website at opshoeboxnj.org.