Palmer Elementary’s Kindness Club has already made an impact at the school.
“We have done little kindness initiatives around the school like leave positive messages for students to find, write letters to all of our staff to let them know we appreciate everything they do and we cleaned up trash around the playground,” said School Counselor Sandra Tredo.
But, the club wanted to do something that impacted the community at large. Their choice? Collecting donations for Every Dogs Dream in Johnson City.
“We researched different shelters and voted on two of them. We chose Every Dogs Dream. We wanted to help both cats and dogs,” said 3rd grader Savannah Murray.
“They worked in pairs and each researched a different animal shelter in the Broome County area. They then had to share their findings to the group and explain what animals the shelter has, what supplies they need and an interesting fact they found,” said Mrs. Tredo.
“We found out what they needed: blankets, dog chow, puppy chow and toys,” said 3rd grader Chloey Woodruff.
The club held a school-wide donation drive. But before they could, they needed to get principal Toby Youngs to approve of their plan. That required more preparation.
“The students had to put together a presentation for Mr. Youngs to explain why they wanted to do this fundraiser and the steps they were going to take to implement it,” said Mrs. Tredo. “Kindness Club made posters to hang in all of the classrooms and they went into every classroom to explain the fundraiser and shared what supplies the shelter was looking for.”
The drive, which ended April 12, meant a little more work for a good cause as the students wrapped up school for Spring Recess.
“We did our research on how this shows kindness and helps our community,” said 3rd grader Cassie Groome.