The Herkimer Elementary School library served as a makeshift assemblyline Thursday afternoon, as students busily filled boxes with food that will be placed on 40 local families Thanksgiving tables.
In the past, the elementary school students handled a portion of making Thanksgiving baskets.
But the program had gotten so big over the past five years that organizers this year decided to call in a little help.
Mary Tomaso, assistant elementary school principal, said organizers with the Herkimer Elementary School Parent Teacher Association contacted the Upstate Cerebral Palsy Big Brothers/Big Sisters program to get some of the older students involved.
Students from the high school, in grades 10-12, joined the second to fourth graders and the mentoring-style program benefited from a special holiday experience, said Lauri Sanford, with Upstate Cerebral Palsy.
The elementary students had collected all of the food items in the boxes, and some of the high school classes made pies for the baskets. And local businesses — Smith Packing, Bruce Ward & Co. Real Estate and Enea Funeral Home — made donations to cover the cost of 40 turkeys to complete the holiday spread, according to Pat Kelly, with the PTA.
School nurses and administrators will be distributing the baskets today to families that will benefit the most, Tomaso said.
Tomaso watched as students counted cans and pushed carts full of food around the library. Praising the students commitment and the contributions that made such an appropriate Thanksgiving program possible she said, “This is truly a community project.”
Herkimer, N.Y. —
