Dunfee Students Gather Clothes for Charity Donation

As the holidays draw closer, students at the Lillian M. Dunfee School are giving back with a clothing drive for Dottie’s House of Ocean County, an organization that offers safe housing to victims of domestic abuse.

Dunfee Student Council coordinator Rena Dineno said the more than 60 council members in the school’s fourth and fifth grades threw themselves into the project for the last three weeks, all in an effort to help women and children who don’t have a safe home to go to this holiday season.

“A lot of them have done work on their own, taking home materials to make posters,” she said, which the school put up to remind students to give. They spread the word to family, friends and others in the school community. And when the clothes started coming in, they gave up that most precious of elementary resources: playground time.

“The kids have come in during recess and have been sorting through them,” Dineno said. “They’ve been really enthusiastic.” 

The fruits of their labor are stacked in the school: a dozen big moving boxes and several bags filled with clothes, plus boxes of shoes and other items, awaiting pickup this week by staff from Dottie’s House.

The drive is just the latest community service effort by the school and its students. The large and growing Student Council is also looking forward to once again sponsoring a student in Uganda and supplying funds to cover her school costs.

It’s one more step in fulfilling a mission to help others – both at home and far away. “It’s what I try to explain to them from the beginning when we first meet,” Dineno said.  “We do things for our school, our community and even for our global society.”