Members of the Junior Girl Scout Troop 60381 pose with just some of the donations they collected. Photo by Anne Siconolfi
On March 4th, HF-L 4th grade Junior Girl Scout Troop 60381 delivered donations to Hillside Children’s Center, an organization that assists children and families across the region with a variety of needs, from housing to family support services, and a number of home-based, school-based, and/or residential facility-based services.
In discussing and selecting a community service project to pursue, these 4th graders were really shocked by how many children are in foster care in the Rochester area, and that a lot of them travel between homes or experiences with little to call their own, and the Juniors wanted to help. They proposed a donation drive, researching items Hillside needs at any given time. They checked out the Hillside website’s Wish List, and then leaders connected with Anne Siconolfi, coordinator of programs at Hillside, to ensure we collected what Hillside needs.
With very little time to prepare (only about a week), the girls mobilized, met with Manor School Principal, Jeanine Lupisella, to make this service project a donation drive the entire school, in addition to HF-L’s Totiakton Girl Scouts, could participate in. The girls created flyers to distribute to all Manor families, as well as a Power Point presentation about the project. They decorated and put collection boxes in the Manor lobby during Wellness Week, and spread the word through their own connections.
In total, thanks to our generous community, they collected over 450 items to donate to Hillside’s children, including 35 backpacks and tote bags, 226 personal care items, 51 hats and sets of gloves, 15 new sets of socks and underwear, 70 misc. art supplies, and 40 school supply items.
Monday, March 4th, the girls brought the donations to Hillside’s Rochester headquarters, and met Anne Siconolfi as well as Kristin Rapp and Amy Warren, each representing different parts of Hillside’s well-oiled machine. There, the girls toured the facility and learned about the scope of Hillside’s reach. Siconolfi said the girls’ donations will go in their ‘store’ on site that coordinators and managers can take items from as their clients need them.
We look forward to hearing from some of the recipients, but due to confidentiality concerns, we could not meet with or see any of the facilities with children. Nonetheless, the girls had big smiles as they could see the donations actually going to the center that will benefit from them, so that was great. All left the drop off / tour with happy hearts.
Thank you Hillside Children’s Center and Hillside Family of Agencies for all you do for the children and family in need in our communities!
