As part of a school-wide kindness campaign, the fourth and fifth graders at Village School recently finished their project based on kindness and gratitude.

The theme for Happy Healthy Gorham in February is Growing Gratitude. Being grateful can mean being thankful for what you have, appreciating what you have, and not being greedy. Village collected items as a school for Preble Street Shelter in Portland. Preble Street provides services to people experiencing homelessness, hunger, and poverty.

The shelter offers meals, clean clothes, showers, a place to stay, and healthcare, among many other services. It also helps people when they need it and also helps them find longer term solutions to homelessness and hunger.

The shelter needs a lot of different items: non-perishable food, clothes, personal hygiene products, and other supplies for people to have fun, such as; playing cards, books, magazines, or games. Some of the food that is used most are coffee, cooking oil, pasta, and rice. For clothes, they collected socks, sweatshirts, and warm winter gear for men, women, and teens.

Preble Street also collects things for teenagers who come to the shelter, like sporting equipment, art supplies, and movie tickets. On February 28, Village held a school-wide assembly focused on gratitude, where they shared how much was collected and donated to Preble Street Shelter. For more information on what Preble Street needs or the center’s mission, visit www.preblestreet.org.

Gorham schools have also been involved in efforts to help local animals (see below). Village School’s second and third grade’s kindness project focused on donating to the Animal Refuge League (ARL) of Greater Portland. According to Village third grader, Hailey Racine, the school received a great deal of donations including cat food, dog food, peanut butter, treats and toys. The donations were delivered on Martin Luther King Day and they were so thankful at the ARL. Gorham High School’s National Honor Society also held a successful school-wide collection for the Animal Refuge League before February vacation. Additionally, members took an afternoon and made approximately fifty dog toys out of old t-shirts to donate to the cause.