West Islip Students Give Back with Adopt-A-Family Program

Students at West Islip’s Udall Road Middle School learned to give back to the community and help needy families through the school’s annual Adopt-A-Family service project, while developing budgeting skills at the same time, according to a school news release.

The project began with a Giving Tree, where families, staff and faculty purchased doves to help raise funds for the needy families, who are identified with the help of the school nurse and social worker, the release states.

Their list included five to 10 families at Udall who would not be able to purchase any special items for their children during the holidays.

The money raised was then split equally among the children on the list, who vary between 10 and 30 in number.

Without knowledge of the names of the needy families, the project organizers were provided with the gender, age and sizes of each child for specific needed items such as pajamas, gloves, hats and sneakers, the release states.

Each member of Udall Road’s student council was then given a budget and a list for each child, according to the release.

The students’ job was to choose the best gifts for their assigned child with the use of coupons and sales, to ensure getting the most for their money.

“Adopt-A-Family not only teaches budgeting, math and percentage, but most importantly, it teaches altruism, and involves doing for others without any expectation of reward,” said Principal Daniel Marquardt in the news release. “Clearly, this service project is an effective method to teach these life skills.”

[Photo courtesy of the West Islip School District]