ACS high school students presented the Atlantic City Rescue Mission with a check for $1,732 on March 16 to help fund the Mission’s important work meeting the needs of the homeless in Atlantic City and surrounding communities. The donation came from the proceeds of the school’s February 5 Bowls of Hope Soup Cook-Off Benefit. In a separate presentation, Mrs. Wroniuk’s 4th grade class was recognized on March 3 for winning first place in the Bowls of Hope classroom fundraising contest, raising $468 from ticket sales, sponsorships, and sales of the Super Soup Coupon Cards.
At the check presentation for the Rescue Mission, Dara Brown Heston, store manager of the Mission’s Charity Thrift Store in Northfield, accepted the check and thanked the students and the school for their efforts. The students who who participated were from the Student Council and the National Honor Society, and had volunteered at the Bowls of Hope fundraiser and helped sell tickets to the event. Also participating in the check presentation were Upper School Principal Meg McHale and Event Coordinator Christian Delacruz.
After the check presentation, Heston, who is a 2011 ACS alumnus, and two associates from the Mission’s Thrift Store led the students in a mini-workshop on how to transform a T-shirt into a shopping bag, a process she described as “upcyling.” She noted that on May 4 businesses in New Jersey will be prohibited from providing customers with plastic bags, so making a washable, cotton bag made out of a T-shirt, is one good alternative to the plastic bags.
“There are so many ways to help the homeless in our community and one way is to make shopping bags out of the T-shirts that you aren’t wearing and donate them to our thrift store to sell to our customers,” Heston said. “Now that you know how to make these bags you can organize a bag-making event and donate the bags to the Thrift Store.” Each of the students made their own shopping bag and a number of them donated their bags to Heston for the Charity Center.
