It’s the time of year for giving, and MICDS students are diving into the spirit.
Upper School students continued the annual tradition of collecting food for the holidays for the Derek D. Martin Food Drive. Derek Martin was a firefighter for the St. Louis Fire Department. His engine house ran an annual food collection before the winter holidays to feed needy families in their community. After Mr. Martin died in the line of duty, the food drive was renamed in his honor. Mr. Martin’s daughter, Kayla ’17, introduced the food drive to MICDS, and this year marks the students’ 4th year participating. In total, they collected more than 2,600 items for donation.
Upper School students also collected new or gently used winter coats and new gloves, mittens, scarves, hats and socks. Adults items will go to veterans and homeless served by St. Patrick Center, and youth items will be donated to Children’s Hospital’s Healthy Kids Express Vans and The Little Bit Foundation.
In the Middle School, 7th graders made bags of care for members of the St. Louis community who may be in need, an idea brought forth by Lucy Zimmer `23 who thought it would be helpful for people to have something pre-made in their car to give to someone in need. English teacher Maggie Dunson helped spearhead the collection of materials, and each advisory was assigned a task. The bags consisted of hats, socks, tissues, lotion, toothbrush and paste, band aid and alcohol wipes, comb, deodorant and chap stick and a granola bar. Students kept bags for themselves to keep in their families’ cars, while the rest of the bags were donated to St. Patrick’s Center. A representative of the St. Patrick’s Center also came to speak to the students about helping those in need.