Westfield High School Community Service Club Helps Those In Need

by Lorre Korecky

Capping off their year round efforts to serve those in need, the Westfield High School Community Service Club’s activities included serving meals to individuals in need in Lower Manhattan through the club’s work with the Summit, NJ-based nonprofit, Bridges Outreach, and helping an inclusion class in a Plainfield elementary school.

Pictured here is WHS Community Club Vice President Emmy Liederman presenting an iPad to Plainfield first grade teacher, Jillian Gladstein, of the Cedarbrook K-8 Center in Plainfield.

The club fundraised through student-run events to make the donation possible.

Throughout the school year, the club:

• held a coat drive and toiletry drive for needy New Jerseyans
• tutored students at Westfield elementary schools
• paid visits to Brighton Gardens Assisted Living in Mountainside, leading seniors in craft activities
• coordinated Westfield High School’s involvement in the Extra-Lunch Day donations that benefit the Salvation Army in Plainfield
• coordinated a blood drive at the school
• raised money for individuals in need throughout the Westfield school community, from students to teachers to alumni

The club also helped kick off the school’s first-ever summer read-a-thon “Book for a Cause,” and several Community Service club students (as well as others throughout the school) will be reading “A Path Appears” by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn to benefit Reach out and Read NJ.