News & Events
Kids Helping Kids
Challenger School Walk-A-Thon
This past spring, fifth and sixth graders from the Challenger School at McGuire Air Force Base hosted a Walk-A-Thon to benefit HomeFront and raised over $1,000. Using their recess time, the Challenger students walked a mile a day for five days. The proceeds from the Walk-A-Thon went towards the HomeFront summer camp, a six-week program for homeless children between the ages of 6-12.
"The success of this Walk-A-Thon is a testimony to the quality of the students and military personnel we have in the McGuire Community," said Helen Verity, a guidance counselor at Challenger. Stressing to her students the importance of affordable housing and the necessity of a solid education, Verity used this Walk-A-Thon to educate her students about homelessness in Mercer County.
Athletic Equipment Drive
Thirteen year old Noah Wasserman knows how great the smell of a new baseball glove can be! He believes that all kids should have the opportunity to play sports, and when he found out that HomeFront after-school programs were in need of sports equipment, Wasserman took action. As a congregant at Adath Israel, Wasserman decided that for his bar-mitzvah service project he wanted to give kids at HomeFront the opportunity to share his enthusiasm for athletics. With the help of his family, friends and neighbors, he collected new sports equipment for HomeFront's after-school programs and summer camp.
Wasserman gave HomeFront kids bags full of bats, balls, racquets, a balance beam, and of course new baseball gloves!
Princeton Day School Fifth Graders Fund a Room for a Family
In the spring of 2004 the fifth graders of Princeton Day School hosted two BBQs at HomeFront's Family Preservation Center to celebrate the dedication of the room they sponsored for a homeless family. The evenings were fun-filled, complete with hamburgers, hot dogs, and games for the over one hundred residents of the facility. The students were celebrating the dedication of a room they donated to the center, which will be used to house a family.
The BBQ was the culmination of a successful year long service learning project, headed by Humanities teacher Sybil Hollard. The project included a series of fundraisers benefiting homeless families and aimed to promote awareness of homelessness in Mercer County.
United Moms Charity Association
In an effort to help out homeless families, a group of students from West Windsor continuously donate snacks for HomeFront kids. Working together as part of the United Moms Charity Association, a non-profit organization based in Princeton, these students sell gift certificates to friends, family and community members, and use the proceeds to buy snacks for the kids. Three times a year, for the past six years, these students bring hundreds of boxes of snacks for HomeFront's after-school programs.
A Note to Educators:
HomeFront is committed to the educational component of volunteering. We encourage students to be aware of and understand the causes of homelessness, and what can be done to alleviate the housing crisis in Mercer County. If you are interested in involving your students in a project for HomeFront, please contact us.
For more information, call 609-989-9417 or send an email to: .
