Fifth- and sixth-graders in Latham Ridge's Service Club organize supplies for families in need in the Dominican Republic.

June 10, 2009 - Latham Ridge Service Club students collected more than 200 pounds of clothes, food and other supplies that will soon be shipped to families in need in the Dominican Republic.

The students collected the supplies during May and managed to fill a 55-gallon barrel full of items such as pens and pencils, crayons, notebooks, toothbrushes and toothpaste, first-aid bandages and ointments, bags of rice and beans, flip flops and other summer clothing. The supplies will be shipped to the Dominican Republic and distributed directly to families and children in need.

Fifth-grade teacher Cassandra Leoniak, the Service Club's co-chair, said students worked hard to promote the project by making signs, reading announcements and spreading the word throughout the school.

"It has been a valuable and humbling experience for the students to participate in this humanitarian effort," she said.

The Latham Ridge Service Club was founded during the 2007-08 school year and gives fifth- and sixth-graders the opportunity to help promote awareness of needs in the community and to take action to make a positive difference in the lives of others.

"It is our hope that by teaching and encouraging a community-minded conscience, our students will be inclined to take the initiative to reach out to others in our schools and throughout the community," Leoniak said.

Teacher Cassandra Leoniak and students in the Service Club organize supplies.

During the 2008-09 school year, the club completed a number of projects, such as sprucing up the school library, making dog blankets for the Mohawk & Hudson River Humane Society, packing books for the Parsons Child & Family Center, making Valentines for veterans at the Stratton VA Medical Center and assembling craft kits to be donated to the Children’s Hospital at Albany Medical Center.

The idea to collect items for people in the Dominican Republic originated with the district's Globalization Literature Circle, which is part of the district’s professional development program. The Globalization Literature Circle works with teachers, administrators and other faculty and staff to help them understand that people from different cultures have different values, viewpoints and feelings. The goal is to improve communications between the school district and families of various cultures, which in turn should enable both to deal more effectively with academic problems or other issues when they arise.

Leoniak attended a Globalization Literature Circle seminar earlier this year and learned about humanitarian efforts taking place in the Dominican Republic. She thought the Service Club students would be interested, and arranged for them to view the same presentation she had seen. The students then determined they wanted to help out in some way and decided to collect supplies for families in need.