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 never volunteered or been involved with the program since most of the parent volunteers came from the older grades. After a few hiccups we were able to get the sandwich-making up and running with awesome support from families, school leadership and staff.
With new people involved, we were able to incorporate some innovative ideas and ways of doing things. Little things like having kids hand out fundraising flyers at the end of the day instead of the morning seemed to create new energy and helped get donations during the fundraising drive. The biggest change we made this year was a switch from peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to deli meats and cheese after needing an alternative when a previously nonallergic student reacted to peanut butter.
We found that shopping at Sam’s Club allowed us greater flexibility with our budget. We were able to go from making 200 PB & J sandwiches to 170 turkey and ham sandwiches for roughly the same price. I’ve also really enjoyed the opportunity to talk about Tootin’s Project Outreach with people who were curious as to why my cart was overloaded with so many sandwich-making supplies.
Another recent change is having parent volunteers and children personally deliver the sandwiches to ImmaCare. In 2019, our principal at the time cleared parents to take their children from class to help make the deliveries. The program has really caught on this year with parents able to take their child and a classmate with them to deliver the sandwiches their class made. We’ve had more families involved with this than before and the kids appreciate seeing the process through to the end.
Project Outreach and our work with ImmaCare have brought so much value to our school community and helped our children begin to understand the importance of helping others and being involved in the world around them. I love that the program has a strong tradition within the school and appreciate the work of so many people who are involved to keep it going every year.