Students at Potomac Elementary School gathered together on June 6 to participate in “Good Deed Day.” Organized by parent volunteer Holly Lotwin, with the support of the faculty and many parent volunteers, the students of Potomac Elementary School got involved in a variety of efforts to help those in need in our community as well as showing their support for soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Each grade contributed with different supplies to support the various projects. All the students, from kindergarten to the 5 th grade, were “hands-on” in supporting the various project, which included Project Lunchsack, Project Backpack, and Project S.O.S. (Support Our Soldiers) Similar activities to support these groups had recently been conducted at Beverly Farms School and helped inspire the effort to organize this event.
During Project Lunchsack, the students packed lunch bags for Manna Food Center, a local charity that collects and distributes food to 2,000 Montgomery County families each month. Manna will distribute the lunches to kids who might otherwise go hungry over the weekend. The students decorated the lunch bags and then filled them with Easy Mac, juice boxes, and fruit cups. As a result, 390 lunch sacks were filled and given to Manna Food Center for their "Smart Sacks" Program.
Project Backpack involved filling backpacks with school supplies to help fellow students at a local sister school for those in need. The backpacks and school supplies were contributed by students and their families, as well as a generous donation of school supplies from Staples office supply stores. The brand new backpacks were filled with crayons, pencils, colored pencils, folders, glue sticks, and notebooks. More than 50 backpacks will be provided to help fellow students when they start the next school year in August.
The school had a special visit from Army Captain Brian Jantzen, who talked with the children about life in the Army and his experiences in Iraq. The children wrote letters of support to deployed soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Capt. Jantzen, born and raised in Reston, Va., is currently at Walter Reed recovering from injuries sustained during an attack on his HMMVW by an Improvised Explosive Devise (IED). Capt. Jantzen joined the Army after 9/11 and became an infantry officer in the 82nd Airborne Division. He was serving in his second deployment in Iraq when the attack on his unit occurred. Capt. Jantzen received a wonderful reception from all the students and thoroughly enjoyed talking to the children and answering their questions.