Fraser Woods Montessori School Director of Admissions Alison Kistner was surrounded by students on Friday, October 14, during a meeting of the newly formed Helping Hands Club.

Ms Kistner said she believes there is tremendous value in volunteering and doing community service work when at a young age.

“I knew that our students here at Fraser Woods Montessori are natural ‘doers’ and that they would find joy in completing this type of work,” said Ms Kistner.

The club began this school year, and on October 14, student members, which range from first graders to fifth graders, were busily creating bags of collected items to donate to the Emergency Department at Bridgeport Hospital for the Pediatric Area and to Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital.

Ms Kistner said the club asked the whole school community to donate the supplies for the bags. Coloring books, sketch pads, crayons, and small games were just some of the things that were donated and sorted by club members into the “kits” that would go to the two hospitals.

In total, Ms Kistner said club members created 100 kits.

Each kit was marked with a sticker that said, “From the Helping Hands Club at Fraser Woods Montessori School, Newtown, CT,” with the first name of the student who organized the bags.

“Since the club began, I have heard wonderful feedback from parents of the students saying how much they enjoy coming after school each Friday,” Ms Kistner said.

The club meets weekly, and at the following meeting the club worked to create trail mix bags to donate to the St Vincent DePaul Mission of Waterbury.