The holiday season is coming, and contributing to the Operation Smile Food Drive and the Junior Class Coat Drive are two great ways to spread holiday cheer around the community. 

The club typically fundraises and advocates for kids with cleft lip and palate conditions. Since COVID-19 started they have been hosting an annual food drive that donates to the Westchester Food Pantry, as they weren’t actively performing cleft-related surgeries then. “The first year we did it, it was so great to see how excited the volunteers were to collect all the food that had been donated,” recalled co-president of the Operation Smile club Alexandra Simons ’23. The food drive started on November 7th, and ends on November 23rd, so make sure to bring some non-perishable foods to the boxes at the Brewster and Post Road entrances by then!

This is the first year the junior class has hosted a coat drive after thinking up the idea last month. “Over time, it was a lot easier to talk about our plans with teachers and staff, and overall the experience has been great,” said Sydney Geringer ’24, a Junior Class Representative who helped organize the drive. The junior class would like people to donate new or gently used coats. They will send what they receive to a Salvation Army Thrift Store in the New Rochelle area, donating the coats to those in need. The coat drive started on November 15th and was initially planned to end around Thanksgiving but is being extended until Christmas. People can drop off their coats at the Brewster, Post Road, or Athletic Entrance. “We hope to get enough coats to ensure families in need stay warm in the winter,” Geringer shared. 

Don’t hesitate to bring in non-perishable foods, or new or gently used coats to spread holiday cheer around the community!