Skippack Elementary School Students Warm Hearts This Season

The Perkiomen Valley School District released the following information:

fourth graders got “cozy” this holiday season by organizing a pajama drive for children who live in group homes, shelters, foster care and orphanages. The students of Mrs. Michele Beddis’ fourth grade class collected 526 pairs of pajamas.

This is the second year that the students have participated in “The Great Bedtime Story Pajama Drive,” which is sponsored by Scholastic Book Clubs and the nonprofit Pajama Program. The mission of the drive is to provide children in need with brand-new pajamas and books. Scholastic donated a book for each pair of pajamas the students collected. Last year, Skippack collected 478 pairs of pajamas.

Beddis’ class opened this project to all of Skippack Elementary and almost all the classrooms in the school generously participated.  Beddis’ children selflessly gave up their recess time for two weeks to undertake the massive endeavor to build and label boxes, sort the pajamas by gender and size ranges, create a table of totals, and bag the pajamas for transport. The drive ended Dec. 5.

Several pairs of pajamas went to students locally, and the rest were picked up by the southeastern PA pajama coordinator to distribute to Turning Points for Children in Philadelphia, where they will be given to needy children and families for Christmas.  To date, the drive has resulted in the donation of 41,350 pairs of pajamas, and Skippack is proud to be a part of this. Beddis’ students made the following comments about their experience:

“I loved thinking that we helped the kids who needed help so badly.”

“When I put on pajamas now, I think of the pajama drive and all the kids we made happy.”

“It was so fun!  The best experience ever!”