Romona’s Kids: Long-distance donation, Romona Robinson, WKYC-TV
The inspiration came when they saw a little boy sweltering in a turtleneck and corduroy pants in 100-degree weather. Since then, dozens of local students have turned an annual school trip into a meaningful journey.
Eighth graders from Agnon School are packing for a trip of a lifetime. They’re trying to pound, shove, squeeze and wrestle as many clothes as possible into giant duffle bags. And, they haven’t even started packing for themselves yet.
The duffle bags are actually full of new clothes, donated as part of the Agnon School’s social justice, or mitzvah, project.
“Our school is going to Israel in a few weeks and we are collecting clothes for Ethiopian Jews,” said student Molly Kazan.
The 110,000 Ethiopian immigrants who live in Israel live in poverty. So every year, Agnon eighth graders hand deliver the clothes to families in need.
“They can’t afford clothes so this is a very good mitzvah we are doing, to try to help them out as much as we can,” says student Elanna Rosner.
“They are underprivileged children and we’re just trying to do the best we can to help them,” added student Josh Friedman.
While many of their peers may take for granted heading to the mall to buy any clothes they want, these students will see for themselves what it means to have so little and how their work will mean so much.
“Every shirt counts. Every shirt is one more thing they can have,” says Elanna.
Each of the duffle bags weighs 40 pounds. There are 33 students going on the trip and they’ll each take a bag with them.
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