Thanks for the dog water dishes

Thank you to the merchants and members of the faith community who have set out water dishes on the sidewalks for our dogs.

Lunch Buddies

There is a very exciting program beginning at ECCO which allows kids to help other kids during the summer. Through the Lunch Buddies Program, students bring healthy, non-perishable lunch items and gently used or new children’s’ (through 12th grade) books to school during the last two weeks of the school year to be distributed to kids at ECCO who rely on free or reduced lunch during the year or whose families are just having a tough time.

There are many food drives around the winter holidays and they are great, but kids eat a lot when they are home for the summer and many families struggle when their childcare costs go up because their children are not in school. Kids during the great depression helped one another; kids during World War II had victory gardens to help in their communities. The kids of today are good people too. If we share our food and books with one another we will all start the next school year off on the right foot.

If your school is not having a Lunch Buddies collection, you can do it yourself. You can bring items to ECCO (it is on Six Mile Road) in bags marked "Lunch Buddies". You can also start a Lunch Buddies drive at your school. If you know a child or family who could use a little help with food and books this summer, please send them to ECCO the week after school ends to pick up a Lunch Buddies bag.

We do not have to wait until we grow up to do good things in the community.

Adults can argue about who needs help and who does not. Lots of kids who got free or reduced lunch grew up to be great people, like Lance Armstrong, Sarah Jessica Parker and Jay-zee. Many others are successful people you see every day, like doctors, politicians and business owners. When kids help kids we all succeed.

Thank you so much for participating in this program. Thank you so much Piggly Wiggly and Scholastic for all of your help, too.

Caitlin Maher, who started the Lunch Buddies program, is pictured with the Pig!