Students and their families recently collected food for a local pantry, and the kids are also set to present letters and cards to some local first responders.
Some of Evesham’s youngest took a little extra time this Thanksgiving holiday season to learn about being truly thankful for what they have.
Once again this year the children at the Evesham Township School District’s Teddy Bear Academy daycare participated in several activities meant to teach the kids about what it means to be thankful and give back to the community.
“Our theme for November is ‘Things We Are Thankful For,’” said Evesham Child Care director Leah Perlmutter. “Not only do we talk about all the things we are thankful for, we also teach the children the meaning of ‘giving’.”
As in years past, the kids, families and staff of Teddy Bear Academy held Teddy Bear’s annual food drive for two weeks this month during which everyone collected non-perishable food. This year donations then went to the food pantry at St. Joan of Arc Parish for those less fortunate.
In addition to collecting food, this year kids at Teddy Bear Academy also have another project planned to learn about being thankful.
In a few days children will be writing letters and drawing pictures for their “Hometown Heroes,” such as local police officers and firefighters.
The kids will then get the chance to give some of Evesham’s first responders those letters and drawings in person when local police and fire officials visit Teddy Bear Academy on Nov. 29, which marks this year’s National Day of Giving.
“We’re going to have the kids make them cards and pictures thanking them for their services and letting them know that, since November is the month of being thankful, we wanted our local hometown heroes to know that we appreciate them,” Perlmutter said.
In return, Perlmutter said the police department has offered to show the kids a police car and turn on the siren as a demonstration while officers visit.
“It’s trying to teach our kids at our youngest level here that these are our hometown heroes and police officers are good and they’re safe and the officers are here to protect them,” Perlmutter said.
With the kids at Teddy Bear Academy being so young, Perlmutter said were the perfect age to start learning about concepts such as being thankful.
She said the lessons were so popular with the kids that several families offered to pay extra to have their children attend Teddy Bear Academy’s annual Thanksgiving Feast on Nov. 23, despite their children not normally being scheduled to attend the academy that day.
“This is our third year in operation, so we’re always trying to make traditions,” Perlmutter said.
