BREWSTER, NY — Neighbors coming together to lift each other up with dignity and joy, makes this Hudson Valley community special, and the lessons start early.

From the Brewster Central School District.

In Brewster Central School District, civic responsibility is more than just a phrase.

It incorporates action and engages with the larger community in many ways. One recent example was the Free Shopping Event held at the First Baptist Church in Brewster.

Students from Donna Schneider, Sarah Barnes and Denise Galgano’s Life Skills class along with Maider Solores, the District’s Community Outreach Specialist, spent the past four months getting ready for the event, which had more than 150 registered customers from the school district as well as many walk-ins. Customers arrived between 3 and 6 p.m. to shop from an assortment of clothes that had been washed, folded and sorted by size by students and teachers.

Clothes stacked by size and type: winter coats and snow pants, long sleeve shirts and sweatshirts, hats and mittens, t-shirts, pants. In total, there were 12 carloads of bags filled with hundreds of pieces of clothing.

The clothes were either donated by families, the PTA, outside groups or else from the lost and found. Students and teachers spent the entire summer at their business, Bubbly Bears, washing clothing collected from the lost and found bins at each school at the end of the year.
The core four of students from the life skills class include: Max Michinko, Joseph Lala, Christian Pinel and Nicholas Stafford.

“We decided we would give all the clothes to people in need to help the community,” explained Max Michinko, “everything anyone needs is right here.”

“It was a lot of work–we separated each piece of clothing by size–we looked at the tags. But it feels really great to give back to the community,” said Joseph Lala.

“I already knew how to fold,” said Christian Pinel, “I agree, it feels great to help out.”

This is the second year Brewster schools hosted the Free Shopping event. In addition to free clothes, the technology department was on site to help families. The school also collaborated with Extended Families from Somers, which donated 86 decorated bags of food packed by students for families to take home.

This release was produced by the Brewster Central School District. The views expressed here are the author’s own.