Dayspring: Giving During Holiday Season

December 23rd, 2009 · No Comments

DCA Students Learn About Giving During Holiday Season

Fifth-grade students at Dayspring Christian Academy of Attleboro help out in a Providence food kitchen in November as part of a school-based community service project. Shown here, from left, are Tara Iannbelli, Rachel Mayer, Adriannah Manigault, Itoro Okokon and Joshua Gravel. (Photo courtesy of Dayspring Christian Academy)

ATTLEBORO – Students in Grades 3 and 5 at Dayspring Christian Academy of Attleboro participated in community service projects in November and December to help those in need during the holiday season.

Under the supervision of Grade 3 teacher Donna Wilson and Grade 5 teacher Emily Gallo, DCA students manned a food kitchen in Providence, R.I., prior to the Thanksgiving Day holiday, and held a Bake Sale and collected donations of personal products for underprivileged youngsters in Haiti.

“My students asked me a few months ago what they could do together to help other people during the holiday season,” Gallo said. “They came up with the idea of helping out at a food kitchen in Providence and organizing gift baskets for needy children in Haiti, and they also decided to help out the third-graders with their Bake Sale.”

Gallo said that in the weeks preceding Thanksgiving Day, her students collected and solicited donations of food products and delivered nearly 160 canned food items to a food kitchen in Providence a few days prior to the holiday. Students also helped out in the kitchen that day and in serving meals to needy people.

Fifth-grade students at Dayspring Christian Academy of Attleboro pose for a photograph with some of the Christmas gift packages they organized for needy children in Haiti. Class members include (not in order) Joshua Gravel, Tara Iannelli, Milan Jaiswal, Samuel Laurent, Adriannah Manigault, John Henry Manosh, Rachel Mayer, Trevor Moulton, Jacob Nason, Itoro Okokon, Kushal Patel, Jaret Pires, Jaison Ragnaught, Sharon Rajadurai, Michael Russell, Samantha Souza and Jose Vasquez. (Photo courtesy of Dayspring Christian Academy)

The fifth-graders continued their philanthropic efforts during the first two weeks in December, collecting and soliciting donations of various products that can be used by underprivileged children in Haiti. The final haul included toiletries, toys, clothing items and school supplies, which the students organized into seven separate boxes for shipment to New Missions, a Florida-based organization which operates and supports missions in Haiti.

According to Gallo, students also donated personal funds to defray New Missions’ expenses in shipping the Christmas boxes to Haiti.

“I sponsor a child in Haiti through New Missions and the students decided that this was a worthy cause to which they could donate,” Gallo said. “They went far beyond my expectations.”

Third-grade students at Dayspring Christian Academy of Attleboro proudly display the hand-made signs they created to publicize an in-school Bake Sale in December to benefit Assembly of God youth ministries in The Netherlands. Shown here, from left, are Elizabeth Tong, Garmodeh Willie, Jaclyn Martin and Mike Berja. . (Photo courtesy of Dayspring Christian Academy)

According to Wilson, DCA’s third-graders desired to raise funds for Assembly of God youth ministries in The Netherlands and devised the concept of an in-school Bake Sale. Because of the small size of the class, however, additional help was needed.

“We only have 12 students in Grade 3, so we needed more student involvement in the school to make this possible,” Wilson said. “Emily said that her class would be interested in helping out and they did.”

Wilson said the Bake Sale receipts were “encouraging.”

“I thought the Bake Sale went well and we will be able to donate a decent amount of money to the missions in Holland,” she said.

DCA’s fifth-grade class includes Joshua Gravel, Tara Iannelli, Milan Jaiswal, Samuel Laurent, Adrianah Manigault, John Henry Manosh, Rachel Mayer, Trevor Moulton, Jacob Nason, Itoro Ikokon, Kushal Patel, Jaret Pires, Jaison Ragnaught, Sharon Rajadurai, Michael Russell, Samantha Souza and Jose Vasquez.

DCA’s third-grade class features Ianna Berja, Haley Berthiaume, Jorge Biaggi, Tatum Bisch, Sarah Brouillard, Xhiir Burgess, Autumn Cummings, Monique DaFonseca, Jaclyn Martin, Gracie Mastalerz, Elizabeth Tong and Garmodeh Willie.

Further information about Dayspring Christian Academy is available by contacting the school at 508-761-5552, or accessing its Web site at www.dayspringag.org.