Merrimac Elementary School students, Jake Moore, Danielle Warneka, Rafael Cintron, Julianna Vazquez and Nicholas Bergo began with the end in mind when they organized a “Clean the World Soap Drive.”
The fifth grade students brought their service learning project idea to Ms. Bethany Fredette. She is the Student Lighthouse Team advisor and Merrimac’s psychologist. They shared the details to their leadership idea.
The students decided to join the “Clean the World” cause by collecting bar soap to help kids that are at-risk for disease that could have been prevented with proper hygiene.
All of the students took the time to create fliers which were posted around the school in order to collect bar soap for the cause they hoped to be able to support.
Also, on the days of the drive the students took turns reading about why the soap drive was important.
“Every 15 seconds a child dies from disease that could have been prevented with proper hygiene,” said Rafael Cintron, a student from Mrs. Meade’s class.
“The results were amazing- the students collected about 50 bars of soap four days,” said Merrimac Principal Veronica DeCicco. “The soap this group of students collected will be used in hygiene kits that are distributed to homeless shelters here in the United States, or sent to at-risk people in developing regions abroad! What a fantastic display of synergy and leadership skills!”