A Season of Giving

In eighth-grader Katherine Geraghty’s (Colts Neck) words, “The main purpose of the Community Service Club is to help those in need…. We follow many steps to make food drives successful: we plan our marketing and define our goals, we visit every advisee group to spread the word, we help craft morning announcements and reminders about the food drive, we post flyers and posters and hang them throughout the Middle School…. We are learning to knit so we can make scarves for charity as well. We are very proud to be members of the Community Service Club and to be able to practice the joy of giving.”

The Lower School collected more than 230 gifts for 78 children as part of Lunch Break’s Adopt-A-Family program and its Community Service Club, advised by Mrs. Meg Moruzzi and Mrs. Doreen Fowlkes, visited the nearby Kensington Court Assisted Living Center to sing songs and share holiday cheer as part of a “Winter Wonderland” event (see photos).

Our performing arts students also gave back this season. For example, Dr. Dorothy Sobieski and members of the Upper School Orchestra performed at the Brandywine Assisted Living Center in Wall on December 6. The annual outing, organized this year by Michelle Krameisen ’16 (Spring Lake) and sponsored by the Tri-M® Music Honor Society Chapter 5275, included holiday and classical music. The Jr. Tri-M® students, advised by Mrs. Lillianne P. Torrente, raised $2,100 to purchase musical toys for the Toys for Tots Foundation by hosting a Middle School Penny War and a Coffee House Bake Sale. This was the group’s sixth year raising money for toy purchases (Jr. Tri-M has raised nearly $10,000 for toy purchases and donated 757 musical toys since 2006) and the students have fun each year going on a “shopping spree” at Toys ‘R’ Us. This year’s event was organized by Jr. Tri-M President Himani Nayyar ’19 (Morganville).

Says Mrs. Torrente, “A sense of magic was evident right from the start [of the trip] and continued throughout the morning…. Our shopping student ‘elves’ were given an anonymous $100 donation by a passing holiday shopper who was impressed and inspired by our students’ efforts. This stranger, through her kindness and generosity, set the tone for the rest of the day…. We had three teams, three checkouts, six shopping carts filled with toys, small denominations in bills and tax exempt forms to complete! All went without a hitch and the students donated 125 toys!”

Ranney students in all divisions also participated in the RSPA fall food drive and Rockin’ Angels clothing and accessories drive. See page 4 of the current Columns magazine edition for more details on community service as part of the Ranney student experience.

School-Wide Food Drive, A Second-Grader's Perspective (Video, Fall 2014)