The Superintendent’s Corner by Dana Addis
With the holiday season quickly approaching, we will soon find ourselves busy with the hustle and bustle of attending parties, shopping for gifts and cooking for family and friends.
But it is also a time to reflect on helping others, which is why the Holiday Sharing program in the Hudson community remains so important. If you aren’t familiar, Holiday Sharing involves a collaboration of community organizations collecting food, personal hygiene items and gift cards to help local families in need this holiday season.
At Hudson City Schools, each of our six buildings is provided with a list of items to collect. For instance, at Hudson High School, students are encouraged to donate items such as cereal, peanut butter, ketchup and shampoo. Other buildings are tasked with collecting products such as canned goods and boxed cake mixes. All of these donations contribute to more than 75 families in our community receiving a large box of goods prior to the Thanksgiving holiday.
Our students, particularly at the high school level, are very involved in spreading the word. Student government representatives at each grade level hope to encourage fellow students to participate.
In addition to the school district, we want to recognize the other local entities who contribute to this special program:
- Hudson Ministerial Association donates detergent for each family;
- Christ Community Chapel provides each family with a Thanksgiving meal, including turkey, sides, pie and other food products;
- Costco provides a monetary donation towards paper products;
- Acme provides a discount of gift card purchases;
We also want to recognize the Hudson Police Department for donating gift cards during the holidays that help our senior citizens in the community. Plus, the Hudson City School District partners with St. Vincent DePaul in December to provide gifts for families in need during the holidays.
If you would like to contribute to the program with a monetary donation, visit locallevelevents.com/events/details/35819. Donations are used to buy gift cards to grocery stores for families.
One of the reasons this program is so successful is that it is a true community-wide effort. We hope to keep the spirit of the season alive in the Hudson community for years to come.