Lowrey Students Don Hats, Collect Food for Community’s Poor

Wearing a hat indoors might not be a common fashion choice, and in some environments, it’s considered impolite.

But when students at Lowrey School wore hats on chilly day before Thanksgiving, it was anything but disrespectful: It was a show of “Polar Pride” and effort that would raise enough money to provide 25 families Thanksgiving dinner.

“The children paid $1 to wear a hat, and there are 1,300 students at this building,” said Fadwa Fawaz, a resource teacher at the kindergarten through eighth grade facility. “We wanted to raise a dollar for each child, and we raised about $1,340.”

This month, Lowrey students are once again participating in efforts to help less fortunate families by collecting canned and dry foods. Students were encouraged to bring in four food items, which will be donated to Zaman International, a Dearborn-based nonprofit that assists poor people living in the area.

By the time the donated items were packed up and transported to Zaman’s headquarters Dec. 20, about 5,000 items were collected, and although some students were unable to donate foods, others were in a position to donate 20 to 30 cans, which helped the school surpass its initial goals, said Fawaz.

Because of the state of the local economy, buying food during the holidays can be a struggle for some families. Monica Boomer, the director of community engagement at Zaman, said the efforts by schools make a huge difference in the non-profit’s ability to provide relief to people in need.

“We have quite a few schools that donated to us, and it’s wonderful,” she said. “We couldn’t do what we do out in the community if it were not for the support we receive.”

For students, helping out has been a learning experience.

Aya Channir, a fourth-grader in Nessrine Ishmael’s class, said she liked donating the food at school.

“I really liked helping a lot of people for the holidays,” she said. “It made me feel good.”

Fawaz said the efforts helped kids learn the importance of giving.

“We didn’t have pizza parties for the class the collected the most cans,” she said. “We wanted them to know what it’s like to give without receiving.”

Doing Good in Dearborn Schools: Watch for more stories about how Dearborn students are making a difference in their community every day this week.