CHICKERING CARES
What is Chickering CARES?
Many returning students and families might be familiar with Chickering's "Make A Difference Club" (MAD). The idea of MAD originated with the desire to educate and create awareness around the needs in our local communities, by presenting 4th and 5th-grade students with opportunities, even as young people, to contribute and “make a difference” within their community. While this school year looks different for all of us, that sense of community is stronger than ever, and with that, we wanted to expand the prior principles of Make A Difference Club to ALL Chickering students, and so we introduce "Chickering CARES"!
Chickering CARES will help to educate and create awareness around the needs in our local communities by discovering simple ways that we can ALL make a difference, TOGETHER! Kids will participate in fun projects and community service initiatives, all of which will foster kindness, generosity, and understanding of those around us. Past projects have included organizing a Food Drive for A Place to Turn, creating a Buddy Bench for the Chickering playground, building birthday boxes for less fortunate children whose families can not afford birthday parties, visiting with seniors from Dover’s Council on Aging, and many more.
While the scope of our projects will be different this year, the hope is that by participating in Chickering CARES, our children will become more aware of the many ways they can help better their communities, through both hands-on volunteerism and charitable giving. Children will begin to develop philanthropic leadership skills as well as an understanding as to how they can become a catalyst for change, in a time that it is more important than ever. With this, we believe that Chickering CARES will allow us to more broadly apply the mission of Chickering Elementary School, because "TOGETHER, we CAN make a difference"!
If you have any questions and/or thoughts or suggestions about future Chickering CARES initiatives, please contact Kim Hall at community@doverpto.org
We look forward to an amazing year CARE-ing with you all!
Best,
Kim Hall
Community Outreach, Dover PTO 2020-2021
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Kim Hall
Community Outreach Chair
Joan Cordell and Sarah Wilson
Chickering CARES Coordinators
UPCOMING EVENTS
Oct 12th and Nov 11th
10 AM to 5 PM
Healthcare Heroes Appreciation Drive
Deadline Mon, Nov 9th
UPCOMING EVENTS
Family Promise Metrowest
November 11th - 10 AM to 5 PM
Please join us for a Chickering CARES community service project to benefit Family Promise Metrowest.
Chickering families can drop off gently used soft good items to a truck that will be parked at Family Promise's Natick location. These items will then be taken to SAVERS and used to raise funds for children in the Family Promise Metrowest programs so that they can purchase boots, snow pants, and winter clothing.
Click here for more information!
Healthcare Heroes Appreciation Drive
Now through November 9, 2020
Given the COVID-19 concerns, and in an effort to continue to keep the Chickering community healthy and safe, we will not be collecting Halloween candy to send to our troops this year. Instead, Chickering CARES is partnering with Wellesley Dental group to continue the spirit of giving back, by celebrating our amazing local healthcare workers, with a Healthcare Heroes Appreciation Drive!
We are asking students to make "kindness cards" and/or write letters to show our appreciation and gratitude for ALL the sacrifices that our healthcare workers have made over the last several months. To increase the impact of this drive, Wellesley Dental Group will donate 25 cents for EACH letter or card to the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA), who will use the donation to purchase PPE for their frontline workers.
How Chickering students and families can get involved:
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Design/write a homemade appreciation card or kindness letter
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Students can bring all cards and letters to the "Healthcare Heroes Appreciation Drive" collection box in the Chickering lobby no later than Friday, November 6th. Families can also drop off letters/cards (completely contactless) OR mail them to the Wellesley Dental Group office by Monday, November 9th. The office address is: 5 Seaward Road, Wellesley 02481
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Please feel free to spread the word about this amazing initiative with other friends and families you think would be interested in participating.
Click here for more information!
As always, please feel free to reach out to me, Kim Hall, PTO Community Outreach Chair, at community@doverpto.org with any questions.