by April Harrison
Howard R. Driggs Elementary PTA President Elect
This year, our PTA Board decided to have a service project for our students that they could really get their hands on. We put together hygiene kits for United Way of Salt Lake’s Community Schools and Neighborhood Centers. The month was February and with Valentine’s Day we thought to add a little flare to the event by calling it “Stuffed with Love” and having it during our Spirit Day.
A few weeks before the event we sent home a flyer to our students asking for donations of soap, shampoo, toothbrushes, and toothpaste. We had a lot of great donations and even though we asked for travel-sized items, we had families bringing in the full-size bottles of shampoo!
We made the kits in Ziploc bags during the students’ lunch recess. Our students had a great time putting these hygiene kits together and they signed their names on a tag that read: “stuffed with love from the students of Howard R. Driggs Elementary”. This project did not take up a large amount of time for us and was very meaningful for our students. During our event, kids were asking if they were taking the kits home, and when we educated them on that the kits were going to students at other schools in Salt Lake who don’t have soap or shampoo at home their eyes widened. Our students were learning to give their time from recess that day and, most importantly, they were learning to give to those who don’t have access to these simple items.
With the generous donations from our families, we were able to complete 150 large hygiene kits and 175 smaller kits to go to those in need. We will definitely be doing another project like this next year!
