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Kids In Need Help People In Need

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By LOIS KINDLE

lkindle@tampatrib.com

Published: December 24, 2008

RUSKIN - Eighty-four percent of the students at Ruskin Elementary School qualify for free or reduced lunches. Yet this Christmas season they, themselves, have learned the lesson of giving.

During the past two weeks, virtually all of the school's 861 students participated in a food drive to stock the shelves of a local food bank, said Principal Donna Ippolito.

"We wanted our students to experience the spirit of giving and to do something where each of them could participate," she said. "A number of teachers brought in extra cans of food for the students who wouldn't have been able to make a donation.

"One little boy came up to me and said his mother gets food from Beth-el Mission and asked, 'Can I bring some of that?'

"It's like giving in a circle," Ippolito said.

At the beginning of December, the SouthShore Rotary Club came to the school for its annual distribution of free dictionaries to fifth-graders. Afterward, Rotary representatives talked with the students about their club's service projects and the importance of community service.

Ippolito said it was a valuable lesson that turned into a service project for students throughout the school, which sprang from a partnership with the Ruskin Junior Woman's Club and Ruskin Chamber of Commerce.

Ippolito said the decision to do the project was easy because it was a way for students to give back to the woman's club.

"Its members do so much for us every year," she said. "They buy our students school supplies and shoes, bring them pumpkins around Halloween and more. They always give and give and give."
Substitute teacher Donna Horn and teacher Sandy Makros organized the food drive in their classrooms and then promoted it school-wide. Their students did a morning show, went around to classrooms to collect the food and kept tallies to add to the excitement.

For every donation, students received a ticket that entered them in a drawing. At the end of the drive, 25 tickets were pulled, and the winners received goodie bags filled with items purchased by teachers.

On Dec. 15, 35 boxes of food were donated to Our Lady of Guadalupe food pantry.

"It was very helpful for us because we now feed an average of 640 people per week," said Tom Bullaro, who co-directs the pantry with Larry Flynn. "It was very touching to see the kids doing this to benefit others."

A similar effort by Ruskin elementary students benefited the South Hillsborough Food Pantry just before Thanksgiving.

Reporter Lois Kindle can be reached at (813) 865-1553.

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