Project Warmth at Sandhills School aims to keep Midlands’ aging warm and fed this holiday season

Sandhills Students donate pantry items, socks, gloves, blankets and toiletries to the Lexington County Aging Commission in school-wide community service effort.

Sandhills School celebrates a long standing tradition of giving back to the local community with student driven community service projects. In years past students have served meals at Transitions Homeless Center, donated presents to the local children’s hospital, created cards and carrolled for the residents of the Findlay House, collected canned goods and pantry staples for Harvest Hope food bank, and helped serve and donate to many other local charities and organizations. Most recently Sandhills School has developed a relationship with the Lexington County Recreation and Aging Commission to provide warm items and pantry goods to senior citizens in the Midlands.

The Bucks’ partnership with the Aging Commission began when Sandhills teacher, Carolyn Royall, decided to introduce blanket making as a middle school club choice and proposed donating the blankets to Project Warmth. From there it grew into a middle school wide blanket making effort, and each year since, the high school and lower school have joined the project by donating other warm items and pantry staples. In 2021, Sandhills’ students made, donated, and gathered 181 warm items such as blankets, socks & gloves, 103 toiletry items, and 776 canned goods and pantry staples. In addition to these much needed items, students hand crafted cards to wish all of the Project Warmth recipients a happy holiday.

The folks from the Lexington County Recreation & Aging Commission stopped by campus to talk to the middle schoolers about what the commission does to help senior citizens in the Midlands and how their gift would impact the lives of so many during these cold winter months. The LCRAC explained to the students that for some recipients, these items and cards may be the only gift that they receive this year. To learn more about Project Warmth you can visit Lexington County Recreation and Aging Commission’s website.

Sandhills School is a 1st-12th grade college preparatory school for bright students with dyslexia and related learning differences. Through individualized Orton-Gillingham instruction, our students gain the confidence, master the tools, and participate in the opportunities they need to realize their potential in academics and life. Sandhills School is the only Orton-Gillingham accredited school in the Midlands and one of just eighteen in the nation, with students from 22 local zip codes in the Greater Columbia area.