Red Ribbon Works!
A Program of Greenville Family Partnership
Name of Recipe (Activity): Collect-a-Bear Stuffed Toy Drive!
# of Servings (Students): Entire School
Grade Level: Middle and High Schools
Ingredients (Materials):
- Sturdy Cardboard Boxes
- Stuffed Animals
- Several Spools of Red Ribbon
- Notepaper (purchased or made with art supplies)
- Art Supplies
Preparation Time: 1 month
Length of Time to Cook: 1 Week
Directions: (1) Recruit students, parents, and teachers to participate in a “service learning project” for Red Ribbon Week that will involve donating stuffed animals with a drug-free message to children in a less fortunate elementary school. (2) Locate enough sturdy cardboard boxes to serve as collection bins in every homeroom. Check with local grocery stores or other retailers... They probably have extra boxes that they are just going to throw out anyway. (3) Recruit Art Teachers and art students to create labels for the boxes using whatever art supplies can be spared. (4) Have students place a collection box in every homeroom. (5) Appoint at least four students per homeroom to collect and keep a count of the stuffed animals as they are donated.(6) Remind everyone about the “stuffed toy drive” by making an announcement over the School PA System; posting flyers all around the school; sending flyers home with students; and/or sending out notices via US Mail. (7) Contact local businesses and toy retailers to ask if they would be willing to donate stuffed animals. (8) When enough stuffed toys have been collected, have students write a drug-free message for each one. Once again, the art supplies should come in handy when it comes to writing and/or designing the drug-free messages. (9) Have parents and teachers help tie the messages onto the toys. (10) Create a folder containing every detail concerning this event in case you decide to do it again sometime in the future.
Clean Up & Storage: Have parents and teachers deliver the boxes of stuffed animals to the school. Store any extra spools of red ribbon or donate them to Art Teachers along with any art supplies that were borrowed. If there are any extra stuffed animals, donate them to a local charity or to the children’s ward of a local hospital. File the event folder.
Discussion Ideas: Call a meeting to see if anyone has any suggestions about how to do it better the next time - that is, if there will be a next time...
Submitted By: V. Henderson, Resource Coordinator