Leaphart Elementary School students partner with Leeza’s Care Connection

November recognizes National Family Caregivers Month.  To help celebrate this event, fourth and fifth grade girls in the mentoring program known as the “Girls of LEAP” at Leaphart Elementary School partnered with Leeza’s Care Connection to put together care packages for local Veterans and caregivers. This program teaches the girls about self-esteem, bullying prevention and giving back to the community.

“This partnership with Leeza’s Care Connection and our Girls of LEAP has been so rewarding,” said mentoring coach and teacher at Leaphart Elementary School Tiffany Murrill. “I have chills in this moment seeing how the girls are impacting our Veterans and caregivers. We all have some sort of connection to them where someone in our family has served in the military. This is the least that we can do and it is great for our girls to experience this.”

The students filled their bags with items such as snacks, candy, and essential hygiene products just to name a few. Items were donated from the community. Leeza’s Care Connection is a nonprofit offering free services to help families facing Alzheimer’s disease and other chronic illnesses. Emmy-award winning talk show host Leeza Gibbons launched the foundation 14 years ago and recently opened a location in Irmo back in July.

“We are so blessed that Leeza’s Care Connection can have this partnership with Leaphart Elementary School,” said Leeza’s Care Connection Managing Director Marti Colucci. “Everything we do at Leeza’s Care Connection is volunteer-oriented and it is such a great way for us to help those in need by having the support of our local schools and the community.”

Leaphart Elementary School principal Kelly Brown was on-hand to watch the students fill their bags and was so proud of the leadership shown. “We always tell our students about the three key words of our mission statement ICE which is Inspire, Challenge and Empower,” Brown said. “Having this partnership just blocks away from our school allows the girls to see role models in the community and this opportunity of assembling care packages for our Veterans and caregivers inspires, challenges and empowers them.