On December 3rd, three students from Goffstown High School and Ms. McKinnon, a Spanish teacher, visited the Liberty House in Manchester. The purpose of the visit was to donate money the school collected during the homecoming week through the Penny Slam. In fact, the students,  helping their classes to win the competition, collected $2,645 for the non-profit organization.

The Liberty house is a non-profit organization that provides food, clothing, toiletries and other necessities for Veterans or homeless people. Serena Martinez, Justin Kaminski and Kevin Buciak were only supposed to bring the check to the Liberty House that afternoon, but then it evolved into a thoughtful morning and an opportunity to help the community. The idea started in October, when the student council was about to choose a good cause to transfer the Penny Slam’s money. They were thinking about the hurricanes in Florida, but unfortunately they couldn’t find a trustworthy organization to directly send the donations. Meanwhile, Officer Jackie Pelletier, the student resource officer at GHS, was looking for funds to send to the Liberty House for the homeless people and the veterans in need. The Student Council immediately loved the idea and accepted to donate the money that they would collect for the Penny Slam.

“I didn’t know what Liberty House was, and I loved the opportunity to personally see who the money went to and to put a face to the people that the school was helping” said Serena Martinez, treasurer of the Student Council.

Jeff Nelson, the executive director of the Liberty House, accepted the check and showed students the offices and the backstorage where they keep all the items that they collect for the veterans.

The students also had the opportunity to help and be even more involved in the community. Officer Pelletier, recently started a “Fill the Cruiser” collection for people in need, where the Goffstown community can donate clothes, toiletries and food. Serena, Justin and Kevin were really happy to help unloading the trailer full of stuff with her.

Serena admits: ” I was very impressed to see how many people came at the same time to bring more donations. It’s amazing how nice people are with helping!”

Ms McKinnon said, “I learnt a lot and I really liked seeing how it was set up” and ,“the students appreciated it that much that they decided to donate again to that organization for the Veterans’ Day”.

The students think that they should donate every year to the Liberty House and that the school should start another drive, like what Officer Pelletier did, to donate to these people.

Serena claims “They were amazed to see how much money we donated. Doing this experience taught me to be grateful for the things that I have, things that I take for granted, for them are special.”