Thank You, St. Walter School!

HSP staff member Jan Thompson, sorting the donation
from St. Walter Catholic School

Last week sure ended with a bang at HSP, with a very generous donation from St. Walter Catholic School in Roselle, being delivered at the tail end of Friday afternoon. As a service project, students at the school collected party supplies and birthday gifts for the needy children served by our Children’s Birthday Project. Pat Peppers, a teacher at the school who helped organize the drive, said that inspiration for the drive was getting the students at the school engaged in helping needy children their own age. The students at the school clearly took the idea and ran with it. They collected enough to absolutely stuff an entire mini van full of party supplies and toys for needy kids.

Pat had estimated that the drive would make about 50 “party in a bag kits” for needy children, but, when all was said and done, the donation was on an even grander scale. Not only did the donation feature tons of party supplies (cake mix, frosting, plates, hats, balloons, party favors, etc.) but they also donated many wonderful new toys, action figures, games, and other birthday gifts for the children. Seeing the donation from St Walter School spread out in our warehouse, HSP Assistant Executive Director, Kristin Maxwell, commented that it looked “just like Christmas.” We at HSP want to extend our deepest gratitude to everyone at St. Walter School who participated in this drive. This outstanding donation will assist HSP in making birthdays special for dozens of the 900 needy children in our program.