Winman club drive gathers clothing for kids in foster care

By Ethan Hartley
Posted 12/19/17

By ETHAN HARTLEY -- Students at Winman Junior High School helped ensure that some local foster families got a little bit of help this holiday season.

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Winman club drive gathers clothing for kids in foster care

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Students at Winman Junior High School are ensuring that local foster families get a little bit of help this holiday season, as they completed a successful clothing drive to benefit Foster Forward for the second year in a row.

The students are active participants in the “Make a Difference” after school club at Winman, led and advised by 13-year veteran school social worker Linda DeConti, who helped start the clothing drive program last year in her first year as Winman’s dedicated social worker.

“It’s a great cause,” she said of the effort, which generated many bags full of clothing, for newborns to 18-year-olds that were donated to the nonprofit on Monday – which will in turn distribute the clothes to foster families who have taken in foster children via the DCYF system. “These kids have really done some wonderful things.”

The clothing drive is only one facet of the Make a Difference club’s activities, all of which are intended to foster a more positive environment, social atmosphere and a safer, more supportive school for all the students at Winman.

The club has partaken in anti-bullying efforts, including a “mix it up day” where students volunteered to sit with different people at lunch than they normally sit with and engage in ice breaking conversations. They initiate days of wearing orange, the color of bullying awareness and they plan an annual day of respect in June where they don rainbow colors as a sign of peace, tolerance and respect for fellow classmates.

“We wanted to make Winman a more inclusive environment and show that everyone is unique and, in so many ways it has brought us closer together,” said Ashlyn Banno, class president and member of the Make a Difference Club.

In addition to these types of efforts, Winman social workers and guidance counselors take further steps to provide intervention training to interested students so that they can become peer mediators and help deescalate situations among their peers.

“These kids can become ambassadors to the rest of the students and to the school,” DeConti said. “I like to think that we’re setting an example and having a positive impact on the school climate and culture.”

The kids in the club said that being in the club gives them a place where they can be themselves and feel comfortable in their own skin. Throughout all the uncertainties and changes that happen throughout the early teenage years, the value of such a club is readily apparent. Helping out others is just an additionally positive cherry on top.

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