Hershey Montessori School Third Grade Students Initiate Aid for Ukraine

Pictured back row from left to right: Anderson (grade 2), Boutros (grade 3). Front row from left to right: Graham (grade 3), Casimir (grade 3), Noah (grade 3), Karson (grade 3), Jude (grade 3).

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Hershey Montessori School third grade students recently initiated a medical supply collection to help support the people of Ukraine in their time of crisis.

The students came to school talking about their concerns for Ukraine after hearing stories on the news. As they shared among the class, they became motivated to do something to help. Third grade teacher Saren Peetz took notice of the students’ compassion for the Ukrainian people and recognized the educational opportunity at hand. She gave the students a basic history lesson about Russia and Ukraine relations and shared with them the geography of those countries. Together, the class became inspired to do something to help.

Motivated to action, the students began discussing possible ways to help the people of Ukraine, including holding a drive for food-based supplies. They found it difficult, however, to find anyone who would still be accepting food item donations by mid-March. After further exploration, they heard that local churches and MedWish were donating medical supplies. The students agreed on that as their mission and set their minds to initiate a medical supply drive right on their own school campus.

“The students organized everything themselves. They decided on dates, which organization to donate to, and they even called to ensure the organizations would accept their donations at the end of our supply drive. They made a list of action steps to accomplish the drive, created a flyer, made copies, and passed them out to all the students and to every family in the school at our Concord Campus. They even organized the supplies as they came in,” said Peetz. “They are now in the process of planning a student-led field trip (a “going out”) to MedWish International in Cleveland to drop off the supplies. That trip will include navigating for a staff driver using maps and making calls to MedWish again ahead of time.”

The supply drive ran from March 15th to April 15th and will benefit refugees of the Ukraine crisis. It was specifically to collect medical supplies and related items, including pain relievers, vitamins, bandages, and backpacks.

The students have worked hard and meticulously on this project to help the Ukrainian people. We are grateful for the tremendous community support and contributions to their project. We know that the people of Ukraine will be even more appreciative.