Right about 10:30 this morning, 11 preschool and kindergarten students at Red Oak Montessori School will proudly hand over $500 worth of blankets and pajamas to children in need.
Gail Lyman, the director of the Community Action Program for Belknap and Merrimack Counties, will be at the Franklin school to recieve them. She will place them in her center’s free clothing space, which she started 17 years ago.
Usually, Lyman said, they’ll be gone after two days.
“This is the busiest time of year,” she said. “It’s hard to buy (heating) oil and yet provide Christmas for your family at the same time.”
Red Oak Montessori director Heather Young said students were surprised to learn that other kids might not have pajamas or a blanket.
“Some of them wanted to go immediately home and get blankets,” she said.
Instead, they held an “Act of Kindness” coin drive. They saved up $221.76 in change in a giant glass Coke bottle.
The change, in addition to $125 each from Franklin Savings Bank and The Country Braid House in Tilton, plus money from parents, the students had enough for a big shopping trip at Wal-Mart on Monday.
Showing wide-eyed 3- and 4-year-olds $504 in cash, Young asked her students, “Do you know how many blankets and pajamas this is going to buy?”