Each month the students and families of Charleston Montessori undertake at least one community service project. Coordinated by a parent volunteer, these projects include collecting donations for local shelters, as well as student field trips to volunteer at charitable organizations.
The Mitten Tree
Charleston Montessori’s annual December giving project. We have the warmest tree in town because our families donate mittens, hats, and other cold weather items to hang on the tree. All donations go to the Covenant House in Charleston.
Habitat for Humanity Paint Drive
Another annual giving project is our Habitat for Humanity Paint Drive. Families donate leftover latex paint and our upper elementary students look forward to delivering it to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore. There they learn about the importance of keeping paint out of our landfills and community water supply, observe the process of mixing paint, and name the new paint colors.
TerraCycle
Charleston Montessori is proud to participate in the Terracycle recycling program. Since May 2013, Charleston Montessori School has diverted over 2,000 pounds of hard-to-recycle materials from West Virginia landfills. Besides the positive impact this has on our environment, Charleston Montessori School earns cash donations from Terracyle through their Points Program. You can find a full list of accepted materials in the Charleston Montessori School office. Please contact us if you or your business would like to donate recyclables to Charleston Montessori School.
Other community service projects include:
- Monthly donations of items such as cereal and laundry detergent to the YWCA Sojourner’s Shelter.
- Cooking meals for families staying at the Ronald McDonald House.
- Writing “thinking of you” cards to seniors for Faith in Action of the Greater Kanawha Valley.
- Visiting with seniors at Edgewood Summit.
SEPTEMBER:
- Upper Elementary students picked up trash in the school's parking lot
OCTOBER
- Canned Pasta collection for Bream Memorial Presbyterian's food pantry
DECEMBER
- Collected winter necessities for our annual "Mitten Tree" to donate to Covenant House
JANUARY
- Bream-Soup and Blanket-collected travel sized toiletries, scarves/hats/gloves and blankets for MLK Jr Day distribution.
- Faith in Action of the Greater Kanawha Valley-elementary classes made Thinking of You cards and collected stamps-Jennifer Waggner the Executive Director, will speak with the classes 2/27/19 and provide additional information about another program we may be able to participate in next school year. Second year making the cards.
FEBRUARY
- The Ronald McDonald House-for the 2nd year upper elementary students prepared lunch for the families staying at the house. This year the students also sewed a Softie as part of the Children's Museum of the Arts New York City CIVICKIDS campaign.
MARCH
- Canstruction-upper elementary in partnership with ZMM has been designing a structure to build on 3/15/19 at the Clay Center made from canned foods. The cans will be donated to Covenant House pantry after the competition.
- Bream-will collect granola bars/grain bars, travel size packages of tissues, new coloring books and/or new crayons and sanitizing wipes for Happy Wheels Cart for Ronald McDonald House and Women's and Children's Hospital
APRIL
- YWCA-Race to End Racism (team and or volunteer time to manage the water tables and we will also recycle the cups for the TerraCycle program at CMS)-3rd year
- 4/01/2019 WV Make It Shine Statewide Clean Up at Magic Island- upper el only. Jennifer M. and Melissa M. brought this to my attention. Submitted the application today and waiting for more information.
We will likely continue to partner with Bream to help with their Mission Projects throughout the year. These plans could change over the summer or during the course of the school year depending on the activities and plans of the school/classrooms.
- September - TBA
- October - TBA
- November - Harvest Feast
- December - Mitten Tree for Covenant House
- January - Will likely make the Thinking of You Cards and collect stamps for 3rd year with Faith in Action & Bream's Soup & Blankets on MLK Jr. Day
- February - We will go to The Ronald McDonald House again in February at or around Valentine's Day - We are already on their schedule
- March - Will try to team up with ZMM again for Canstruction
- April - Race to End Racism and Life's A Hike
- May - TBA