The Season of Giving

Buffalo spent last week gripped in what can only be called Extreme Makeover: Home Edition fever. The popular ABC television show spent its time in Buffalo making-over the home and the lives of the Powell family on the city's West Side. As I learned during the October storm, in my first year at EFS, Buffalo takes it's moniker of "City of Good Neighbors" seriously. And the occasion presented by Extreme Makeover provided the people of Buffalo and Western New York another opportunity to live up to that ideal. While the show typically gets hundreds of volunteers, Buffalo had thousands (upwards of 5000 in some reports). Where other projects fix up one family's home, the effort of all the volunteers in Buffalo improved 50 houses in a neighborhood that needs the help.

At Elmwood Franklin, we try to do our little part to help our neighbors as well. Giving is our theme for the month of December, and our students are proving already that they're well acquainted with the concept. Our annual food drive to support the Food Bank of Western New York and the Ronald McDonald House has generated a mountain of canned goods and other foods that seems to grow by the minute. The third grade has even started a friendly competition between Mrs. Karassik's class and Ms. Constanzo's class to see which one can collect the most food to be donated. The 8th grade has donated money raised at their annual skate-athon to support Buffalo's Ronald McDonald House. Usually earmarked for a class gift and a day of fun at an amusement park at the end of the year, this year's class opted to make the gift in honor of a classmate who recently had a serious operation and whose family used the services of the Ronald McDonald House in another city. The Prep II class is corresponding with Master Sargent Coleman in Iraq. A local firefighter and member of the National Guard, Master Sargent Coleman has shared the messages and pictures from our students with the men in his unit.

As I see our students coming in to school each morning weighed down with canned goods but excited to be making a contribution to those in need, I'm reminded of the traditions of Thanksgiving, the spirit of this season of giving, and the reach and power of young people to make us all smile.