Head O’ Meadow elementary school students browsed for items to give to their loved ones on Friday, December 12, while the school’s Holiday Shop was open, but buying each item also helped raise money for three local charities.

This is the second year the Holiday Shop was formatted differently than in the past. This year, like last, every item offered in the Holiday Shop, which was set up on the cafetorium’s stage behind closed curtains, was priced at $4. For each item, such as a bag of candy, that a student purchased, $1 was given to a charity.

PTA Co-Vice President Vicky Ricks said on Monday, December 15, that this year’s Holiday Shop raised $1,550 to be split between the Toys For Tots Foundation, Danbury Animal Welfare Society (DAWS), and FAITH Food Pantry.

After purchasing items at the Holiday Shop, students decide which charity they wanted each of the $1 donations to go to by placing markers in bins that represented each of the three charities.

Last year’s Holiday Shop raised $1,375 for the same three charities.

FAITH Food Pantry’s Barbara Lynch visited Head O’ Meadow on Monday, December 15, to collect that organization’s donation from the PTA and students.

“It’s going to help a lot of people,” said Ms Lynch, about FAITH Food Pantry’s portion of the donations.