WHATELY — Police Chief James Sevigne Jr. has placed apprehended suspects in his cruiser before, but, it’s not often he’s had hundreds of pounds of grub in his vehicle.
Sevigne challenged Stephanie Apanell’s fourth-graders at Whately Elementary School to collect enough non-perishable foods to fill his cruiser, and he showed up Thursday morning to help the 17 youngsters load the donations before he brought the items to The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts in Hatfield. He learned at the food bank that the students collected 524 pounds of food, which will serve 437 meals.
“(Apanell) approached me one day and said that they were going to be doing this fundraiser, and was wondering if I’d be able to bring the food over once they collected it all,” he said after he finished helping the students place the roughly 12 bags and 10 cardboard boxes into the 2017 Ford Interceptor Utility he would drive to Hatfield. “I was excited about it.”
The school asked families to donate non-perishable foods by Dec. 18. Each child who brought in a nonperishable was given a gift tag so he or she could make the donation in a school staff member’s honor. The donated food spent time under a “giving tree” in the school’s foyer before the students carried it to the cruiser with Sevigne’s help. Some of the heavier boxes required two students to carry.
“My arms, my arms,” said one girl carrying an armful to the cruiser’s trunk. Food was placed in the back seat once the trunk was full.
Apanell said this project/fundraiser was inspired by a similar fourth-grade project at a Holyoke school where Whately Elementary Principal Kristina Kirton once worked. She explained the state’s new social studies guidelines have a strong focus on civics.
“So, we were trying to find ways to help the students think about the world outside of the small town that they live in. So, we use this as a way to teach them about civics and how to help others,” she said. “It’s just really encouraging to see them get enthused (about) helping others.”
Apanell said people must be 16 to go on field trips to the food bank, so a representative visited the school Tuesday to explain how food goes from one place to another to help those in need. She said the number of donated items was counted every day, and the fourth-graders made a line plot. Apanell said that data will be given to the students’ technology teacher and they will later learn how to convert the data into different types of graphs.
Sevigne said the donations will help a lot of people this holiday season.
“It’s good to see (the students) doing these types of fundraisers, and anything we can do to help them out is great. More people need to do this. A lot of people focus on themselves,” she said. “It’s good to see people caring about other people, too.”
Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 262.