Lynn students making season a success

LYNN – From hours volunteering in the kitchen to taking up collections from classmates, students across the city have teamed up to make the holiday season a success at My Brother’s Table.The weeks leading up to Thanksgiving brought aid from several schools in Lynn, but some of the largest donations of both food and volunteer time came from the city’s high school students.At Lynn English, students from the Jobs for Bay State Graduates program once again took up a collection from students and teachers this year, using the money to purchase nearly 120 turkeys for the shelter’s kitchen.The situation at English is also unique because two of the school’s students, seniors Dylan Ross-Girard and Lauren Scully, have recently been added to the organization’s Board of Directors to provide a student perspective.Executive Director Ilia Stacey says it is too soon to tell what type of difference having students on the board will make, but she is hoping that it will help bring even more young people to the organization to volunteer.”They are both assertive young people with good observations,” she said. “I could see them getting more of their peers involved and providing a younger person’s perspective of what is going on in Lynn.”Students from Lynn Classical’s Key Club have also been volunteering at the shelter, coming in on their own during vacations and time that they are off from school, while Lynn Tech students regularly donate time in the kitchen.LVTI students also stepped up and donated the most money of any school during the annual walk-a-thon in late October, generating the third highest donation amount of any participating organization.Stacey said St. Mary’s High School and many of the city’s middle and elementary schools also donate, with many of the students doing it on their own time without the direction or order from teachers.”School kids in Lynn do a lot, and it is not just the top athlete on the team – a lot of these kids were not born in the United States,” she said. “It is just such a diverse group of school kids that come in, I really can’t say enough good things about them and what they do.”Stacey says it is too early to tell whether donations will be down this holiday season, but the donation of food and volunteer time has been in abundance thus far.”I am optimistic so far, but we won’t really know for another month,” she said. “I know things are tough for a lot of people, but at the same time we have a lot of new donors this year, too. Most of our donations are in the smaller range, $25-$50, and we are hoping the people who give that kind of donation can keep giving this year.”