FRESH MEADOWS — With Veterans Day around the corner, students at St. Francis Preparatory School wanted to celebrate veterans in a way that honored their service to the nation and offered help beyond words of praise.
Their solution was to collect toiletries and donate them to the St. Albans V.A. Medical Center in Queens for distribution to veterans in need.
The drive is led by members of St. Francis Prep’s Franciscan Youth Movement, a club made up of students whose mission is to live out the values of their school’s namesake, St. Francis of Assisi — to live lovingly, proclaim joy and hope, care for creation, and be living instruments of peace.
For the past few weeks, Franciscan Youth Movement leaders and the club’s 30 members have been bringing items like toothbrushes, toothpaste, deodorant, soap, socks, and underwear to their school in Fresh Meadows and have asked their classmates to donate toiletries as well.
The club members spread the word about their project by posting flyers around the school, asking teachers to post them in their classrooms, and using Google Classroom to communicate online with students.
The response has been positive, said senior Rihanna Russell, the club’s co-president. The Campus Ministry Office, the donation drop-off point, started filling up with bags of toiletries within days.
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“I’m not surprised because I feel like our school is a very giving school,” she said. “I knew our students would come together and try their hardest.”
On Nov. 3, Rihanna and her co-president, Anthony Zaphiris, will work with the club’s moderator, teacher Kristina Petry, to sort the donated items and prepare them for delivery to the V.A. Medical Center. Petry said a date hasn’t been set for the delivery but that it will likely be before Nov. 11, Veterans Day.
The donation drive is typical of the kinds of activities club members do, Petry explained. “They want to do a lot for their community. And they give a lot of themselves,” she said.
Club members have visited homeless shelters to donate clothing, participated in park cleanups, and organized Christmas parties for children with special needs, among other acts of charity. “I can’t wait to do the Christmas party this year. It’s always so exciting,” said Rihanna, who plans to become a pediatric nurse practitioner after college.
The students get as much out of the charitable activities as the recipients do, Petry said. “I always feel that the students, no matter what grade they are in, do better with hands-on activities where they can see where their efforts are going,” she explained.
While this was the club’s first donation drive for veterans, it might not be the last, Petry said. “I hope we can turn it into a yearly thing moving forward,” she added.