By Kaitlyn Richards

Student Writer 

On Aug. 23, as summer was winding down, several Millis teachers were volunteering at Cradles to Crayons in Newton, as part of Millis High School Back to School Faculty Volunteer Day. 

Cradles to Crayons is an organization dedicated to providing affordable clothing for children who may not have access to inexpensive clothing. 

Stephen Bigelow, an Englishteacher at Millis High School said, when the teachers arrived for their two-hour shift, “We had an orientation with a number of other volunteers, they explained the organization to us, and then we were broken into groups where each station had a different section within the warehouse. We ended up in an area where we were sorting through donated clothes, shoes, and other similar items. We then decided if they were worthy of being kept and given out to people. If they were, we then sorted them by age and gender.” 

Millis teachers believe community service is important to model for young people. 

“It is important to volunteer not only as people ourselves, but as models for our students. Young people look up to us so to see us out there serving the community and doing our civic engagement whether it be helping others or voting, we serve as models for our society,” said Maryann Ziemba, a Social Studies teacher at Millis High School.

At the end of the volunteer session, the groups came back together and the organization reported real-time data on how the volunteers’ time would impact the community; they left knowing what type of impact they made on the organization and community.

All the teachers who volunteered plan to do something similar to this in the future, whether at Cradles for Crayons or something more local. 

For more information about Cradles to Crayons, including donations and volunteer opportunities, visit www.cradlestocrayons.org/boston/