From October 26th to November 6th, staff and students at the High Road Schools of Connecticut organized a collection for Operation Gratitude. This is our 4th year participating in Operation Gratitude’s Halloween Candy Collection Program. Every year since its inception in 2003, Operation Gratitude sends over 300,000 care packages to soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines and coast guard deployed over-seas. The program also sends packages to the children of deployed service members, first responders, veterans and wounded service members. High Road School’s students and staff are encouraged to bring candy to their school for donations. Students were encouraged to bring in unwanted candy, but many students brought in their favorites because they wanted to share with soldiers. Each school also offered students to be able to donate some of their school store money that they have earned and collected other items identified by Operation Gratitude as needed for Active Duty members.
After all of the collections were gathered, students at our Hartford School sorted, packaged, and then took a trip to the post office to send the items. Overall, students and staff donated over 200 items including: 12 pounds of candy, hand warmers, bags of beef jerky, mechanical pencils, and other various items. Students enjoyed giving back to their community in this way and learning about how to mail packages.
