Longmeadow High School students organize ‘Share What You Can’ food drive at Storrs Library

Date: 1/8/2015

LONGMEADOW – Storrs Library is hosting a food drive called “Share What You Can,” which is being conducted by two students in a community service learning class at Longmeadow High School (LHS) until Jan. 23.

The goal of the fundraiser is to fill a pickup truck with non-perishable food items to benefit the Open Pantry in Springfield, Natalie Bell, a senior at LHS and one of the food drive's organizers, said.

“Our teacher, Mr. [Matt] Flanagan is in charge of [the community service learning class] this year and each quarter we have to pick a project and we go out and just do it during our blocks at school when we have free time," she added.

 Sabrina Siciliano, also a senior at LHS and organizer of the food drive, said there are about 60 students in two separate sections of classes.

Students, in groups of two to four, work on community learning projects such as volunteering with the Big Brothers Big Sisters in Springfield, organizing book drives, creating projects to benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation, as well helping out at local schools and nursing homes, she explained.

“[Students] have done [this project] in the past to some extent,” Siciliano said. “I know my teacher [Matt Flanagan] was talking about how they’ve never raised a sufficient amount [to load in] a bed of a pickup truck and that’s always something that he wanted to see too. If we accomplish [our goal], it’ll be a first.”

Bell said there will also be an afterschool activities day program for children on Jan. 17 to promote the food drive. Activities include group reading and creating marshmallow snowmen treats. There is a suggested non-perishable food item donation for this event and all other events at Storrs Library from now until Jan. 23.

“Community service isn’t just going out and feeding the homeless, it’s benefiting the community as a whole [and] other communities,” Siciliano said.

Jean Maziarz, director of Youth Services at Storrs, said a Toys for Tots fundraiser was also recently completed at the library with approximately 121 toys donated.

“What happened this year for Toys for Tots was a young girl from our community, [an eighth grade student in the Longmeadow School District named Helen Curley-Swannie] contacted me because she was interested, just personally, in doing a drive for Toys for Tots.”

Maziarz said originally Swannie asked for a small box to raise toy donations but instead Storrs Library made Toys for Tots became the organization that the library wished to assist this year.