When it comes to giving back to their community, students and teachers at Brandywine Elementary School are looking inward and helping members of their own school family in need.

The school recently adopted 12 families for the holidays and will be giving them special boxes filled with everything from a week’s worth of groceries to paper plates and paper towels, soap, laundry detergent and toothpaste.

“Last year, just out of the blue, we decided to do a food drive and see how many families we could help,” said Lynn Mickiewicz, who teaches fifth and sixth grade special education. “So this was a carryover from last year. I wanted to do it again because of the wonderful warm reception that we got from the kids.”

The purpose of the drive was to instill a sense of school pride in the students and to help teach them how to be more involved in the community.

Mickiewicz developed an award program for students called the “Catitude Awards.”

Students could pay $1 to take part in themed days like Hat Day and Slipper Day.

The class with the best turnout of school pride received an award certificate that was displayed in the school.

When it came time for the food/necessity drive, Mickiewicz said, “we wanted to see how many families we could help, so we made it another opportunity to win a Catitude Award.”

And the focus was to help those from within the Brandywine Elementary School family.

“We talked to all the teachers and the teachers kind of gave us an idea based on what they know about the families, which ones might be struggling, those that may have lost their job,” Mickiewicz said. In turn, those teachers “made our own phone calls, talked to the parents” and extended the offer of the holiday-timed boxes.

Some parents declined, showing both resilience in their situations and a concern for other families who may be having harder times.

“I had each of the teachers make the contact, being as they know the families better,” Mickiewicz said. “(Responses were) very receptive. If they didn’t feel that they were as needy as someone else, they would decline, (saying) ‘thank you very much but I think we’re going to be OK. Find someone else who needs it more.'”

The decision to look inward in choosing families within their own school community was especially important.

“These are the kids that are bringing in the food,” Mickiewicz said. “Some of these kids that were bringing in the food aren’t aware that they are going to be the one’s that are receiving it.”

Through donations by students and their families, outside organizations and monies raised through the Dollar Days at the school, the school was able to increase the number of families helped to 12, up from seven last year.

“Outside families and churches and (Niles) Rotary have called and said, ‘we want to do presents — can you give us a name?'” Mickiewicz said.

The boxes include laundry detergent, paper towels and toilet paper, soap, shampoo, cleaning supplies, food such as soups, vegetables, ketchup, mustard, peanut butter and jelly, chicken, hamburger and hams, which were donated by the Niles Service League.

“We had over 1,800 items donated from the kids themselves,” Mickiewicz said. “And we’ve used a little bit of the money they’ve raised to supplement what we don’t have.”

Any money left over will be kept, she said, to be used if needed throughout the year.

“Say a family has a fire in their home and they need some help getting back on their feet,” Mickiewicz said. “We’re going to continue it throughout the year. It’s not only helping people in the community, but it’s also helping these kids understand school pride.”