Presentation to students with emotional and mental
health disabilities turns into month-long donation drive.


Students from the Hamburg Campus of the Randolph Academy, a public school which supports, empowers and educates children with various emotional and mental health disabilities, completed a service-learning project today that resulted in more than 1,300 items donated to the SPCA Serving Erie County.
 
Elementary teacher Janet Jesonowski led a group of 25 students along with fellow staff members to the SPCA’s West Seneca headquarters on Thursday morning. There, they unloaded several vehicles worth of boxes containing food, toys, supplies and materials for the dozens of animals awaiting adoption to their new “forever” homes.
 
The donation follows a visit from the SPCA to the 90-student Randolph Academy Hamburg Campus, as part of the SPCA’s “Encouraging Kind Kids Program.”  SPCA staff explained to the children how much they rely on donations in order to care for their animals as they recover from illness or await adoption.  As a result, the students spent the last month reaching out to family, friends and neighbors to request donated items.  One student, Azalea Jones, wrote a letter to her entire neighborhood asking for contributions and wound up collecting 199 donations over Thanksgiving weekend alone. Another student, John Butler, provided 76 items.
 
“The whole thing has been a student-driven project,” said Randolph Principal Andrew Prinzing. “Their generosity and dedication to helping an organization like the SPCA is a great story. I am so proud of them!”
 
Following their donation, SPCA staff treated the students to an informational session about animal care and safety, followed by a tour of their entire facility, including their dog, cat and small animal adoption areas, as well as their barn facility which houses farm animals.