Nov 28, 2002 By April Straughters 3 min read

Third-grade students at Cox-Donahey Elementary School in Brownsville learned the gift of giving this holiday season. Almost every student in the two third-grade classes at Cox-Donahey Elementary School brought in paper and canned goods as donations to the Brownsville Soup Kitchen, which serves dinner on Thanksgiving Day to whomever wants to enjoy a traditional holiday meal.

Homeroom mother Diane Beregi thought up the project as a way of teaching students the importance of giving – the true meaning of the holidays.

“We all get so caught up in holidays, especially Christmas, and I thought it would be a good idea for the students to feel that they are giving something back,” Beregi said. “It (canned goods collection) is a good social lesson about giving and sharing, something I know is taught at home, but should be reinforced in the classroom. The students were really excited to bring things in and give to someone not as fortunate as themselves.”

Beregi said she and Doreen Skerbetz, both teachers at the Intermediate Unit 1 LEAP classroom, an early intervention program, also held a canned-food drive for the California Food Bank. Beregi said her students, ranging from ages 3 to 5 years old participated in the project.

Veronica Bloom, third-grade teacher at Cox-Donahey, said she thought the food drive was a wonderful idea.

“I thought it was a good idea. It’s good for the students,” she said.

According to Bloom, this is the first year the third-grade classes have collected for the soup kitchen and she said students were happy to participate in the project.

“They are doing it in the spirit of giving. Almost everyone gave something. The response was very good. Some students brought in up to seven items,” Bloom said.

Bloom said she and Patty Kaminsky, the other third-grade teacher, incorporated the importance of giving into their daily lesson plan.

“We talked about it with the kids. We discussed how some have more than others and they really got into it,” she said.

Bloom said the school’s 45 third-grade students were excited about their project and seemed eager to give.

Cameron Smith, 9, whose mother, Sheree Smith, is also a homeroom mother and has helped with the project, said he liked the idea of helping others.

“I’m happy to contribute, ” he said.

Stephanie Beregi, 9, agreed.

“I think it’s really nice to do for people who don’t have much,” she said.

Diane Beregi said she believes the project taught students a valuable lesson for the holidays.

“What these kids did taught them a very valuable lesson about what Thanksgiving is and because of our good fortune we are able to share some of that with others. This helped the children understand that things may be bad from time to time in our lives, but there are certainly a lot of others worse off,” Diane Beregi said.

The Brownsville Soup Kitchen will provide Thanksgiving dinner from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the basement of the borough building. All are welcome.