A Tradition of Service
Submitted by: Lisa Hillyard, Tootin' Hills School Project Outreach Coordinator
For 35 years, the students at Tootin’ Hills School in Simsbury have been making sandwiches and collecting nonperishable items to support ImmaCare Inc. Project Outreach was started by a mom of a student who was also the school’s principal at the time. Upon moving to Connecticut in 2016, my children started school at Tootin’ Hills, and I was happy to have them participate and give back to those in need. As I became more involved, I gained an appreciation for the school tradition of students learning to serve the community. In 2018 I was asked to work with two other moms to help run the program. Thankfully, it was already well-established, and we were able to continue with what many awesome volunteers had done before us.
Fall fundraising drives brought in donations from families. Older students dressed in sandwich costumes would greet buses in the morning during fundraising week to hand out flyers and generate interest. Historically, fourth through sixth graders made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches almost weekly from October through April. A local grocery store in our town sold us supplies at cost. Children in younger grades took turns gathering nonperishable goods from collection bins that were placed in every classroom. Parent volunteers and school staff worked together weekly to make it all happen.
Due to COVID-19, in 2020 we suddenly and unexpectedly had to shut everything down. Emily Hart, one of the parent volunteers, was determined to at least finish out the year. Emily coordinated efforts with families who made sandwiches at home, leave them on their porch, and a transportation volunteer would collect assembled sandwiches and deliver to ImmaCare. We ended up adding several extra weeks because so many families wanted to participate. As the 2020-21 school year began, we had discussions on the viability of running the program. We weren’t sure if we could coordinate it with families at home again and in the end weren’t able to get it going.
In the 2022-2023 school year, motivated parents and members of the PTO board were determined to get Project Outreach up and running again. We had a group of fourth through sixth graders who had never made sandwiches for the cause and many parents who had...
