Bring in your stuffed animals!

Bring In Your Stuffed Animals!

By: Melissa Edwards

         "This is emotionally important to me," states student Jackie Simons, "I could care less about my grade."

         What is she talking about, you ask? Students were assigned to pick a cause and stand behind it and no one is taking this project more serious than her.

         "I think this is one of the coolest things I've ever seen a Vanguard student do not for school credit," remarks teacher Mr. Impastato, "It's just something she wanted to do."

         Her goal of collecting 300 stuffed animals for Superior Developmental Center for Autistic Adults has already been completed with 332 animals and the drive still continues until December 6th. They are for residents who don't get any visitors during the holidays.

         Just because she met her goal, don't let that stop you from bringing in your extras for her.

         "Anything I have extra will carry on to next year."

         It looks like she will have an abundance of animals for next year already. Four new bags have just been carried into the office to be counted as of December 3rd. Along with students planning to bring in more during the week. "I brought some in last week and I'm going to bring more in tomorrow!" said student Krystal Garver.

         "I felt I was ready to do it on my own this year. They (her grandparents) were killed by a drunk driver last year. I want to keep the tradition alive."

         "I've been doing it with my Grandma for 11 years. Her and my Great-Grandma did it for 40-50 years."

         "I decided to do this on my own, not because of a class. I figured it would be easier to have them donated then buying them." You were going to buy them? "Yeah, my Grandma did. Like $500 worth. I have to buy candy for them still. She used to do that too."

         With some help from student Danielle Pettibone, they have their work cut out for them. They're spending their service hours cutting tags off of animals and counting them.

         "The recipients are mentally and physically disabled and if they have anything they could choke on or hurt themselves with, it has to come off. That's why I'm cutting things off, so they can still have them. There's a method to my madness. They're like really big toddlers, so all this stuff, they're going to love!"