SADD Club helps PTA with major toy drive at Dinkelmeyer Elementary School

The holiday season is full of initiatives that encourage students to give back at elementary schools throughout the North Bellmore School District. This year is no different, and over the past few weeks, students across the district, which serves all of North Bellmore and part of North Merrick, have been collecting toys to give to children in need.

Newbridge Road Elementary School’s student council collected toys for the John Theissen Children’s Foundation in Wantagh, and at Saw Mill Road Elementary School, students in Michelle Mittler’s third-grade class collected toys for patients at Cohen Children’s Medical Center to benefit children with cancer and other serious illnesses.

At John G. Dinkelmeyer Elementary School, the newly formed Students Against Destructive Decisions, or SADD, club collected toys for the Child Life Services program at NYU Langone Hospital in Mineola. The program provides education, emotional support and therapeutic play to help children through the challenges of disease treatment — and it has a special connection to North Bellmore students.

A student at Dinkelmeyer is currently receiving treatment for leukemia at the hospital, which was a major factor in choosing the program as the drive’s benefactor. Principal Danica Brugge said that through the years, other students have also been treated at the hospital, and that the drive served as a good way to give back to a program that has been a tremendous help to district children.

“The place that was selected was chosen because many of our families in North Bellmore have used this hospital before,” Brugge said. “It’s local to us, so many families in need of medical advice use this hospital.”

The Herald spoke with some of the sixth-grade students in the SADD Club last week, and many said they decided to join the club in order to help people.

“I decided to join because I feel like it (helps) younger kids make a difference in the world,” Anastasia Morse said.

“I felt like we needed to help people in need,” Eric Lin said. “We have the stuff that we need, but some people don’t.”

The SADD Club drive was a partnership with the Dinkelmeyer Parent Teacher Association, which helped spread the word throughout the school community. Club members hung posters in the hallways beginning Dec. 4, and made announcements in the morning to let their classmates know the drive was taking place. Students and parents were asked to donate new, unwrapped toys, which were collected in large bins in the school’s main lobby and near the main offices. Suggestions for hot-ticket items this year included Legos, dolls, cars, dinosaurs and kinetic sand, among others, Brugge said.

“We tried to spread the awareness by making posters throughout the school and trying to say that we’re here,” SADD Club member Aiden Ramnarine said.

The toy drive wrapped up last Friday. The club also took part in pretzel and bracelet fundraisers that also helped children in need.

Dana Carullo, co-chair of the Dinkelmeyer PTA’s Goodwill and Cheer Committee, said the organization holds some type of toy drive every year, and that NYU Langone’s Child Life Services was chosen because of its importance to families in the district — especially this year. Carullo said the PTA was scheduled to drop the toys off on Tuesday to eager recipients at the hospital.

Holly Sugarman, the school counselor at Dinkelmeyer as well as the Newbridge Road and Park Avenue schools, said that SADD Club membership has previously been available to students, but this is her first year of overseeing it at Dinkelmeyer. The new group started meeting at the end of October, and its members have been enthusiastic about setting up projects in the community. Sugarman said they began working on the toy drive just three weeks ago.

“So, a short amount of time, but the kids really wanted to get so involved in it,” she said. “They felt really passionate about it, and they have just devoted so much of their lunchtime to get things together. They’re a really nice bunch who just want to help other kids, and they have so many ideas to do throughout the year.”