Number of Participants: 23
Hours Donated: 10
Value of Time Served: $1,944
Event Type: Children & Youth
Sport: Girls Gymnastics
Date: December 8, 2021
Location:
Franklin High School
Oak Street, Franklin
MA
About:
Each year, Coach Paula Lupien discusses the importance of community service to the team. This year, the team decided to work together on a toy drive to support children in foster care. They agreed to expand the project to include donations of pajamas and blankets because they recognized that these are important items for children as well. This past weekend, I hosted the team at my house (my daughter is a senior on the team) and they decorated toy boxes to leave at different locations throughout the high school. The goal is for the athletes, their families, and friends to help promote this toy drive. At the end of the week, the team will collect all the boxes of toys, pajamas, and blankets and deliver them to a nearby DCF Office.
THE WHOLE TEAM is helping out! The team consists of 20 athletes and they are all participating in one way or another.
I would estimate at least 5-6 hours so far, but by the end of the week it will likely be over 10+ hours (includes promotion of the toy drive, collecting the toys each day, and delivering the toys). I should note, this is just the very beginning of the gymnastics season and the team came together quickly to make this happen!
The athletes did the work themselves. The captains approached the team with the idea and then approached high school administration for approval. The captains and I reached out to The Wonderfund, a non-profit organization that supports children involved with DCF, and together they created a sample list of toys and other needs for children in foster care. The captains created a flier and distributed it to the team. My family hosted a team dinner this past weekend and the captains broke the team up into smaller groups and decorated large boxes to use as toy boxes. They took great pride in decorating the boxes and it got competitive, of course. They really enjoyed working on this together. At different times I could hear “do you think kids would like this toy box when we are done?” or “I really hope we collect a lot of toys and blankets for these kids.” In just the last two days, the team has promoted this toy drive using social media, fliers at school, and word of mouth. Today is only day 2 of the drive and I anticipate it will be quite successful.
I have been a social worker at DCF for 20+ years and I love finding ways for communities to support foster families. My daughter has been on the varsity gymnastics team since she was a freshman and some of the athletes have asked her over the years how they can help some of the children I work with. Two years ago, the team did a pajama drive for children in foster care. I shared a few stories with the team about some of the children I have worked with over the years and how something as simple as new pajamas can make a difference to a child who is sleeping in a stranger’s home for the first time. They were all inspired and motivated to have a successful pajama drive and it turned out better than expected. This year, the team decided to expand and include toys and blankets as well as pajamas in the drive this week. They are excited to deliver the toys and see for themselves the impact this project will have on the community.
This team is very active in community service and has already discussed several other community service opportunities in addition to the toy drive including supporting a young gymnast with leukemia and hosting a gymnastics youth clinic.
Franklin High School and the student-athletes at Franklin High School have always been wonderful about giving back to the community and I feel lucky to live here.
——–
“It’s been awesome to see these girls over the years take part in serving their community. It’s something we have done since day 1 of our program starting and excited to see the passion grow every year with the student athletes!! ” – Coach Paula Lupien
——————-
The gymnastics team had a successful toy drive last week and delivered 4 large boxes of toys, blankets, and PJs to the Taunton DCF office to distribute to children in foster care. Here are some photos of the team decorating the boxes and then the captains delivering them: