Some of the local schools held food drives recently to collect items for Women Involved in Newtown’s (WIN) Thanksgiving Baskets campaign. WIN volunteers collected donations from the schools on Friday, November 21.

(Read more about WIN’s full Thanksgiving Baskets campaign here. )

Middle Gate Elementary School collected enough items to help 22 families, according to the school, and 400 additional items were collected during the school’s annual Turkey Trot, organized by Laura Cooper. According to the school, each class at Middle Gate adopted a family this year.

Sandy Hook Elementary School collected 37 cartons filled with food thanks to its annual Turkey Trot event, organized by Jackie Loyd, according to the school.

For the Turkey Trots at each school, students were asked to donate food items before participating in a walk or jog around the participating school’s property.

At Reed Intermediate School, nearly 2,900 items had been collected by midmorning on Friday, November 21. The school’s Student Council oversaw the collection, and a $250 donation was also gifted to WIN by the group. According to Reed Student Council advisors Matthew Brown and Lara Brown, this year’s collection surpassed the normal 2,500-item collections with fewer students in the school to contribute.

C.J. Hoekenga, Reed’s Student Council secretary and a fifth grader at the school, said he was inspired “how all the kids in the school managed to bring in this much food.”

Newtown Middle School, which also had its Student Council running its food drive, donated a total of 46 boxes for the cause.

The Eighth Grade Leadership Class at Fraser Woods Montessori School, a co-educational Montessori school at 173 South Main Street, also collected for WIN’s Thanksgiving Baskets campaign. According to the school, the group collected enough items to fill three cars with turkeys, food items, and gift cards. In keeping with a tradition started by the eighth grade class a few years ago, the Fraser Woods Montessori School students completed their donation to the WIN Thanksgiving Baskets campaign by singing the Fraser Woods Montessori School song for the WIN volunteers after donating all of the collected items.