Mendham Students Make Holidays Memorable For Families In Need

MENDHAM, NJ — Students at West Morris Mendham are showing they truly understand the holiday spirit and are helping those less fortunate than them.

The West Morris Mendham Service Club, led by advisers Jennifer Brown and Jonathan Dowler, coordinated two collection drives to help children in need during the holiday season.

Over 600 new toys will be donated to the Marine Corps Toys for Tots program from classrooms throughout Mendham High School. The club thanked the Brookside Fire Department for their assistance in bringing the donated toys to the Toys for Tots collecting facility at Picatinny Arsenal.

Sponsored by the Marine Corps Reserves, Toys for Tots is organized locally in Morris County by Stephen Porter.

Last year, in the Morris County Toys for Tots program, 230,609 toys were distributed to 187,500 children who might not otherwise have gotten any Christmas gifts. Nationally, about 625 million toys were handed out to 291 million kids.

The Service Club also granted over 100 holiday wishes from vulnerable children served by Morris County's Court-Appointed Special Advocates (CASAs).

CASA of Morris and Sussex Counties is the county's sole court-authorized advocacy organization for children and teens in foster care.

For the past 36 years, CASA has educated over 1,650 volunteer advocates and helped over 7,100 children and teenagers separated from their families due to abuse, neglect, or abandonment in Morris and Sussex Counties find brighter tomorrows.

The organization provides resources, activities, and mentoring to help the children and teens they assist achieve success as they move toward stability and/or age out of the foster care system.