When Riverview Middle School sixth grade student Hannah McConnell asked the school’s assistant principal Kristi Gerrells if Riverview would help bring in items to send overseas, the answer was “Yes!” 

Riverview challenged each homeroom class to bring in as many items for the soldiers as possible, which would then be used to make soldier gift baskets.

Each item collected from the suggested list earned points for the homeroom class.

Overall, students brought in music CDs, X-Box games, DVDs, mattress pads, socks, toothbrushes, toothpaste, beef jerky, chap stick, tennis balls, hand-written cards, decks of cards, crossword puzzles and much more.

Pat Harris’s sixth grade homeroom opened their hearts and pocketbooks as they brought in the most donated items of any homeroom.

As their reward, Harris’s class enjoyed pizza courtesy of McConnell’s mom, Paige.

Harris and her students would also like to thank Kroger for donating cookies and drinks for the pizza party.

McConnell’s grandfather also purchased cookies for each Riverview student as a “thank you” for donating items.

Riverview Middle School appreciates the hard work of Wal-Mart’s bakery in getting 40 dozen cookies ready within 24 hours.

The amazing results spoke volumes of Riverview’s Character Word of the Month, “Citizenship” and the 30-Day Challenge to “support a community service project.”

“We wanted to gather gifts for the soldiers over in Iraq. They may not get gifts from their families. We thought that maybe we could raise money to help families send gifts,” McConnell humbly said of her reasons for wanting to do this project. 

McConnell’s lofty goal was to have enough items to send baskets to 30 soldiers.

The overwhelming response from Riverview Middle School students is evident.

The total number of items contributed was over 450! The items will be boxed and sent to deserving soldiers for the holidays.

The project started as a result of McConnell watching her mom raising money by raffling baskets donated by local businesses.

McConnell asked her mom if raising money at her school would be possible, never thinking that faculty and students would show so much caring.

“It’s surprising how much people really care after buying all this for the soldiers,” McConnell said.