Part of a community

Smith Elementary School’s PTA runs several fundraisers for the needy each year. Sometimes the parents have collected old prom dresses and spruced them up for the children unable to afford new attire. Other times the parents have led yuletide toy and food drives for the indigent.

But recently they got the kids in the act to teach them about the value of charity. It’s all part of a program they call Kids-4-Kindness.

On Monday, the Smith parents and students shipped 70 boxes of goodies and necessities to a platoon in Iraq. This drive really hit home because the parents and students were inspired to help Stephen Galli, 19, a former Smith student who shipped out to Iraq in March.

“It was very eye-opening to me,” said Margie Hunter, a PTA member who organized the Kids-4-Kindness fundraiser and is friends with Galli’s mother. “I know that the war is going on, but doing this really brought it home. We’re so detached from it and … it felt good that we were hopefully making a difference in their lives. It was an awesome experience for me.”

Carol De La Torre, Galli’s mother, was “blown away by the generosity and the love that’s been extended. It’s been a true blessing.”

For a couple of weeks, the students dropped off items like toothbrushes, eye drops, socks and shampoo into collection boxes on campus. Hunter would periodically pick up the goods and with the help of some of the students would bring them to her garage.

On Sunday, several of the PTA parents and some of the students had a “packing party” to prepare the goods for shipping. There are about 45 soldiers in Galli’s platoon, but the parents and students shipped 70 boxes.

“I think that it’s an amazing program to teach children about giving back, and I think that it’s a beautiful thing that they’ve done,” De La Torre said.

“More schools should do the same.”

Principal Mike Andrzejewski was proud of the effort.

“This just expands what the kids should be thinking about and focusing on beside the academics,” he said, adding he hopes Kids-4-Kindness “helps them develop a sense of being a part of a community.”