Our 2021 Holiday Drive: There's Still Time to Give!

Melissa Rada, Director of Operations, Blessed to Bless, met with Lower and Upper Elementary students to discuss this year’s Holiday Drive benefiting Comfort Cases. Every year, our school chooses a worthy cause to support through the holiday season. Nearly a half-million youth enter the foster care system in the U.S. annually with very little more than the clothes they're wearing and a trash bag filled with their things. Comfort Cases is a national initiative—spanning 50 states—that helps children entering the foster care system this holiday season and beyond.

Hudson Montessori School has pledged to give 120 backpacks—10 from each classroom—filled with new toiletries, personal care essentials, and items like new teddy bears and pajamas that can help children through a tough transition.

The new backpacks were purchased by Hudson Montessori School and the Hudson Montessori Volunteers parent council. Parents have dropped off items in each classroom and all of our teachers are building the backpacks with the students—teaching them, according to their age, about the meaning behind giving to others.

Rada also spoke to the students about how non-profits like Blessed to Bless work with community organizations like Hudson Montessori School. Our community organizations are a key component in the fabric of Jersey City, making our home a beautiful place to live when we come together to help those in need.

We are so thankful for the outpouring of support and remind our families that donations continue to be collected in children’s classrooms through Monday, December 13, 2021.

Items Needed (All new, unopened):

• Toiletries: toothbrushes, toothpaste, mouthwash, soap, lotion, feminine care products, shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, shavers, shaving cream, wipes, diapers, scrunchies, hairbrushes, bandaids, and hand sanitizer

• Individually wrapped snack foods, pouches, and baby food

• Onesies, PJs, socks, new baby blankets, bibs, and washcloths

• New teddy bears (12" and smaller), new children's books, writing journals, pens, pencils. etc.

On Friday, December 17, our school's parent volunteers will be dropping off the filled backpacks to Blessed to Bless, a local non-profit group that is coordinating with Comfort Cases, the lead non-profit organization that runs this donation drive. All of the Comfort Cases we donate will be routed to families in Hudson County's Department of Children and Families system.