MEXICO — With the approaching cold weather, kindergarten student Emily Gilbert started thinking about all of the students at Meroby Elementary School.
“I really wanted to help people so they could stay warm and go outside,” she said.
Her mother, Amanda Pelletier, recalled a conversation at the kitchen table before Halloween.
Emily said, “We have to do something, Mom,” according to her mother.
So the idea of a drive to collect mittens and hats began, with Pelletier taking the effort to Facebook and Emily telling her friends.
Collected were 50 hats, 80 pairs of mittens, and scarves, which Emily presented to her teacher, Kristen Giberson, to distribute to students who need them.
Pelletier said her daughter went so far as to ask the Tooth Fairy that instead of money, she’d really like some mittens that she could donate to her cause.
Before a schoolwide assembly on Monday, it was announced that Emily had become the second recipient of the Meroby Medallion.
“What the medallion represents is someone going above and beyond the (Meroby) code and taking it into the community, and working hard to do nice things for others,” Principal Kim Fuller siad.
Giberson added, “The staff at Meroby thinks this is a pretty big deal that she could be so thoughtful and so giving of others.”
Fuller then placed the medallion around Emily’s neck.
As she walked back to her seat, Emily smiled, admired the medallion, then looked up at her mother and said, “Look, Mommy!”
After the assembly, Emily said she was surprised by the award.
“I actually didn’t know I was going to get this,” she said.
As for what she’ll do with the medallion, she said, “I’m going to wear it to school every day.”
She said she wants to continue to collect the hats and mittens and donate them to the school.
The main reason for the assembly was for a presentation of a check to Sue Byam, director of the GRAMPA food pantry, for $1,075.
Fuller said the donation was made in conjunction with the Oxford Federal Credit Union, which donated $500, and challenged Meroby students to match that amount through tokens they receive for following the Meroby Code, which includes generosity, thoughtfulness, kindness and a willingness to share.
“Just want to say thank-you,” Byam said, “and Meroby, you are awesome!”
Some 15 students were presented Positive Pinto Award certificates for the month of December.
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