Sandy Hook Elementary School hosted a full-school celebration on November 21 to highlight its successful involvement in the annual Women Involved in Newtown (WIN) Thanksgiving Basket Program.

For the school’s efforts, classes worked in buddy teams to donate food items for the Thanksgiving Basket Program, which supplies food to local families for the holiday season through Newtown Social Services. Other local schools also supported the effort.

In a showing of team spirit, students dressed in the color of their team for the assembly. Teams were assigned red, green, purple, blue, or orange to wear to show their team spirit. As classes entered the gymnasium for the assembly, students proudly held up signs that cheered on their teams.

Physical education teacher Jackie Lloyd organized the Sandy Hook School food drive and assembly.

Music played throughout the assembly. Teams took turns walking around the gymnasium to display their spirit and signs. Later, a dance contest was held between teachers, and students Leo Tranquilli, Rulon Snellman, and Ava Stoltz were called up to demonstrate how to do the “floss” dance. When Principal Dr Kathy Gombos was chosen to participate in one round of the dance contest, one student sitting near the back of the assembly could be heard saying, “I love it!”

“Today is to celebrate how hard we have worked as a school to help others,” Ms Lloyd said at the assembly.

Later, Dr Gombos announced which teams won different acknowledgements. The orange team won for donating the most items to the food drive by collecting 517 items. The red team won second place by donating 458 items, the green team won for wearing the most of its color, the blue team won for best signs, and the purple team won for having the most spirit.

Overall, according to Ms Lloyd, the school collected just under 2,000 items for the WIN Thanksgiving Basket Program.