Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes ofwebsite accessibility
Weather Alert
Rain ends Friday morning
Show Less
Close Alert

Cranston elementary students create birthday bags for less fortunate


Students from St. Paul School in Cranston created birthday bags for the less fortunate. (WJAR)
Students from St. Paul School in Cranston created birthday bags for the less fortunate. (WJAR)
Facebook Share IconTwitter Share IconEmail Share Icon

Students at a Cranston elementary school recently went above and beyond to make sure kids and their parents a few blocks away don’t go without on their birthday.

This week marks “Catholic Schools Week” at the St. Paul School in Cranston.

Each day, something new is celebrated. Monday marked “community day.”

Pre-K teacher and the Director of the Early Learning Foundation, Jennifer Larsh, wanted her students to have a lesson in kindness.

“Everyone is familiar with a birthday and we all love to celebrate that,” said Larsh. “So we thought it was a good opportunity for us to talk with the children about how they get to celebrate a birthday and then being able to help others who may not be able to celebrate a birthday.”

When the kids learned a few blocks away there were other kids who didn’t have the opportunity to celebrate, it stuck with them.

“We’re doing something for the homeless who can’t offer parties and buy the things,” said second grader Alexander Rodriguez. “We were trying to be kind and give others love.”

“Some people don’t have a lot of money to have birthday parties,” said 7-year-old Emily Nunez. “I felt bad that people couldn’t really do these type of things.”

Larsh and other teachers grades Pre-K through second coordinated with their students' families to donate birthday items.

“So we asked families to do different contributions like cake mix, and napkins, and birthday candles, and frosting,” said Larsh.

“All the children worked together to color and decorate the birthday bags and work together to decorate their own little cards as such too.”

The students spent some time writing their own personal birthday messages on the bags. Some of them drew their favorite cartoon characters or things like birthday balloons.

Then, in an assembly line, they put the bags together.

Larsh said since the St. Paul School works closely with the McAuley House, the bags were donated there. They’ll be handed out whenever it’s someone’s birthday.

“They really understood that it was helping someone else to celebrate a birthday that may not have had the chance to,” Larsh said.

“We hope they feel the kindness that was put into the project. We hope they take a look at the bag the exterior bag and look at all the different designs and realize all the coloring and the time the children took to participate into that.”

According to Larsh, the project has been around for a decade. Twelve years ago she organized a birthday project for those less fortunate with her students.

One of them now teaches at the school and was excited to have her students do what she did years ago.

“It brought back a lot of memories when we did it here. I remember putting the cake mix in and putting the frosting in,” said kindergarten teacher Karissa Garganese. “I told them I did this when I was their age they really understood the project. We talk about kindness, we talk about respect and how sometimes giving those things we already have to those who don’t have it is a great thing to do. This is a great example of that.”

“I just wanted to help and help them have a fun day,” said Nunez. “I hope they feel excited, and I hope they feel joy.”

Loading ...