Students stage a taboo-breaking donation drive

Collecting female hygiene products for low-income women. Founding a school club and starting a food garden to bring awareness to hunger. Packing shelf-stable meals for the homebound.

Those were just some of the ways nearly 400 current students and the alumni of the Riverdale Country School (RCS) gave back during its Community Action Day, which encouraged everyone to donate their time and to help the neighborhood. RCS alumni organized the event on Nov. 19 and it took place on the Hill campus.

“We are raising awareness about the lack of sanitary items. It’s a conversation people are a little bit afraid to have, or they just find it awkward. We’re trying to break that taboo,” said RCS senior Amanda Chiles. These items are a financial hardship for low-income girls and women.

She is a senior leader of the extracurricular club RCS Girls Learn International. The topic came up at a group meeting, and participants decided to collect the items.

Amanda was at a table with her mother, Terri Austin, where they were collecting donations of female hygiene products such as tampons and sanitary napkins. They would later be packed into small bags and given to Hartley House, a Manhattan-based charity, to distribute.

“I think this is unfair because this is a necessity. Tampons and pads are not a luxury. At least, they shouldn’t be. I think everyone has a right to these items and deserves the dignity and respect of having access to them,” said Amanda.

George Harvey, a RCS senior and a team of volunteers had two goals: Paint signs for a small garden the group is starting at the school and collect books for birthday bags the nonprofit Bed-Stuy Campaign Against Hunger would distribute.

He learned about the organization over two years ago. As part of a school assignment about humanitarians, George wrote about Melony Samuels, the nonprofit’s founder and executive director in 10th grade. During his junior year, he invited Ms. Samuels to speak at RCS and has volunteered with his family during the Thanksgiving holiday at nonprofit’s food pantry.

This year, George founded the extracurricular club Bed-Stuy Campaign Against Hunger, which was inspired by the Brooklyn nonprofit. “I thought it would be nice to bring her work back to Riverdale and show other kids what she does,” said George.

Ethan Canals-Fernandez, a sixth grader part of the school’s Service Learning Club, said that he credits being a part of the program for inspiring him to give back. He was selling items for the RCS bake sale, which raised $2,000. The profits would be used to fund teacher training.

“I think if young people came and donated, I think at the end of the day, they’ll feel really good,” said Ethan about volunteering his time. “This should start in all schools, so people get this opportunity.”

“The point of this day… is to let students know that giving back to the community doesn’t end when you graduate… doesn’t end when you completed your service learning projects. You keep giving back all through life after graduation and also to give back in a way that isn’t only about money--to give back by doing,” said RCS alumna Limor Geller, one of the 2016 co-chairs for Community Action Day.

“We’re not just donating items. We have the kids involved in activities. They’re decorating bookmarks to go with the books. They’re decorating boxes that toys are going in. They’re writing notes of encouragement to veterans at the Bronx VA. We’re getting them involved and down and dirty,” added Ms. Geller.

“It’s important to show the kids from a young age that it’s important to give back to those less fortunate. These are very privileged kids at Riverdale Country School and they all welcomed the opportunity to learn how to give back,” said co-chair Jessica Shell.

Because of their young ages, Dominic Randolph, the RCS head of school, said it is harder to get the Lower School involved in service projects. Riverdale Community Action Day gives those students a chance to donate their time and foster the spirit of giving back.

“If you get people doing service early in their lives, they will continue doing service throughout their lives. It’s really an important thing to do. It’s nice that we have a lot of young people interested. This generation of students is…very interested,” said Mr. Randolph.

Students also helped to pack more than 300 shelf-stable meals which will be distributed by Citymeals on Wheels on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in January. Some of the other activities of the day included traveling to the Endor Community Garden to clean and prep it for the winter, making cards for veterans at the James J. Peters VA Medical Center and decorating gift boxes for toys for children at Rosie’s Theater Kids. The school also organized a blood drive.