Letter: Jonnycake Center thankful for donations from local groups

01/22/09 - To the Cigar,

On behalf of the Jonnycake Center of Peace Dale and its Board of Directors, I would like to extend our gratitude and thanks to all who helped us to brighten the holidays for others through their donations be it food, toys, gift cards or financial contributions.

An impressive number of individuals, local businesses and neighborhoods contributed to help ensure that the Jonnycake Center was able to make the holidays special for so many in our community. What has been most touching is to see the creativity and generosity of area youth responding to the need they see around them. We have all been so pleased to see that so many of their efforts have been noted in area papers over the last few months, and hope that all your readers are as proud of them as we are.

The youth volunteers in Teen Jonnycake contributed hundreds of volunteer hours helping to sort all the food donations, to bag apples and potatoes, and to distribute all the food before Thanksgiving.

In December they contributed even more time, helping to sort toys and be elves for Santa's Workshop, sorting gift cards for teens, food for the December holiday meals and helping to distribute the December school vacation meal baskets.

Local Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts delivered a load of just over 8,000 pounds of food at the beginning of November collected through their Scouting for Food Drive.

Several area Girl Scout and Brownie troops also collected food on our behalf. Scouts also donated toys and gift cards in December.

In addition, several youngsters set up neighborhood food drives and others used their birthday celebrations as an opportunity to solicit donations of food or funds for the Jonnycake Center instead of gifts for themselves.

Many schools brought in food, including collections organized by South Kingstown National Honor Society and the Narragansett High School Student Government. Students from Prout School gave us 27 Thanksgiving baskets and their National Honor Society also collected food. Through an "Angel Tree" South Kingstown High School students contributed elder appreciation gifts, teen gift cards and toys for "Santa's Workshop." Sixth grade students at Broad Rock Middle School participated in a special Hunger Lunch and collected food and funds. Preschoolers at the Village Co-op put together special elder appreciation gifts that were delivered to area seniors along with their December holiday food baskets. Children riding on South Kingstown school buses three and five together collected 1,472 pounds of food in a friendly challenge over the month of December. And students at Narragansett Pier School baked fresh loaves of bread that were distributed to families at "Santa's Workshop."

Youngsters who are training at Ichiban Karate raised $1,430 in gift cards for Thanksgiving through their "Turkey Brigade."

Fraternity and Sorority members at the University of Rhode Island presented the Jonnycake Center with a generous donation of $12,000 raised during their Philanthropy Week this November in honor of URI President Carothers.

The URI Student Athletic Advisory Committee held a special food drive at the URI vs. Providence College men's basketball game, and many other URI students contributed to "Food for Friends" Thanksgiving baskets and other food drives through December.

Teen Jonnycake Coordinator Briana Gustatis arranged a show for local high school bands at Kingston Congregational Church, including her own band, "The Way Things Work" (formerly known as "Anertia"), which raised $500 to help purchase gift cards for teens for the holidays.

Another local student band, "Feel the Water Rise," held a show at the Elks Club in Wakefield with other performers to collect toys for the Jonnycake Center's "Santa's Workshop," and to raise funds for teen gift cards. And Teen Jonnycake member, Jackie Harrig and her mother held a special "Mom and Me" holiday tea in their house to collect gift cards for teens.

Again, our thanks to everyone - young and old - and best wishes to all for a happy and healthy 2009.


Sincerely,

Paul McDonald, President

Board of Directors, Jonnycake Center of Peace Dale