Ever since she first visited Lollypop Farm with her family, McKenna Dwyer, a second grade student at Spencerport’s Leo Bernabi School, has been working on an idea for helping the animals who are there and waiting for a new home.
During her visit, McKenna was asking the workers at Lollypop Farm many questions about how they take care of all the animals. The workers told her about donations that make it all possible. McKenna decided she could collect items to donate to them, and wanted to spread the word to others. She began spending her time writing up lists of items they needed, making posters, and writing speeches. All that was missing was a group of people willing to help out – but not for long.
McKenna brought a list of items that Lollypop Farms needed to share with her Principal, Ms. Campo. Ms. Campo thought that it was a wonderful idea for our “Bernabi Cares Giving Tree.” With that, McKenna eagerly began moving forward with her plan. She created a flyer to send home to Bernabi families, asking them to consider donating items to help Lollypop Farm.
The next steps in McKenna’s plan were to create posters to hang up around the school and begin making ornaments for the Giving Tree. When she shared her idea with her classmates, they were all very excited and eager to help McKenna with her thoughtful idea.
Mrs. Kincaid’s Second Grade classroom resembled assembly-line production, which they had just learned about during one of their Junior Achievement lessons. As McKenna read the list of items that Lollypop needed, some of the students were writing the names of the items on paper ornaments. After they wrote the items, they passed the ornaments to another group of students, who helped punch holes in the ornaments. Finally, the last group of students tied ribbons onto the ornaments. When they had finished, there were over 200 ornaments to hang on the tree.
McKenna has collected over 10 boxes of items: including food, blankets, towels, bedding, toys, and many other items to donate to Lollypop Farm. She also collected over $100 in gift cards and cash donations.
McKenna would like to thank her Mom and Dad, Ms. Campo, her friends, Leo Bernabi School and the community for helping her to achieve her dream.
When asked if she had any last thoughts about this project, MrKenna responded with “My garage in full of boxes, and Lollypop Farm will be amazed at how much I collected for them.”
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