Flower Hill Opens its Heart
The Flower Hill Primary School community opened it hearts during the Thanksgiving season by donating hundreds of pounds of food and related items to the Helping Hand Rescue Mission in Huntington Station for distribution to local families.
Flower Hill's fourth grade student council led the initiative, which saw boxes of food collected from each of the school's classrooms. Students, teachers and paraprofessional staff members all contributed to the effort.
Flower Hill's teachers found the initiative to be a "wonderful" way to teach children how their collaborative acts of kindness and generosity can help individuals and families experience a more enjoyable holiday.
The Helping Hand Rescue Mission was founded in 1965 by Rev. Rose Marie Gaines, her husband and her mother. According to the group's website, "After witnessing local poverty conditions first hand, they invested everything they had with the view that if they could help even one person it was worth the investment."
The Mission supplies food, clothing and furniture to needy families, as well as visiting elderly residents and delivering goods to the homes of those unable to come to the group's headquarters. The Mission's main priority is to reach children suffering under impoverished conditions, providing disadvantaged children with educational and character building instruction, school supplies and love.
For more information about the Helping Hand Rescue Mission go to their website at www.hhrm.net or call Rev. Gaines at 351-6996.