Tuesday afternoon, while most students were counting the minutes until their Thanksgiving break began, members of Little River Elementary School's student government were busy working. They were loading boxes of food into a truck for delivery to the home of LINK Inc.
There were boxes of vegetables, canned fruits, pastas, soup and even tuna. That afternoon, the students loaded 30 boxes of food, easily hundreds of cans, that would end up on the tables of needy families throughout Loudoun and western Fairfax.
"Drives like this are wonderful," Jim Butts, president of LINK, said after the loading was finished. "They are absolutely important to us."
LITTLE RIVER has been holding a Thanksgiving food drive since the school opened, but this year's was one of the most successful.
"We only recently had SGA elections," Nicole Moore, the school's SGA advisor and one of the counselors, said. "I thought that it would be a really good opening project for them."
While the school has given the fruits of its food drive to LINK in the past, this year's drive was a return to the organization after an absence.
"LINK contacted me early on to ask if I'd be willing to do it," Joyce Hardcastle, Little River's principal, said.
Moore said one of the reason's working with LINK was so good for the food drive was the cooperation of so many local churches.
"[The food] wouldn't just go to one organization," Moore said. "It is not limited to one group. It is spread throughout the community."
MOORE SPENT the weeks before the SGA was elected in a "public relations" blitz, including mentioning the drive in the morning announcements and writing a reminder on every classroom's board. Once the officers and room representatives were elected, they took over, talking about the drive during the school's morning television show and reminding their fellow classmates to bring in food.
"They really ran with it," Moore said. "They took a lot of ownership in the project."
Friday, the students spent their afternoon sorting all of the food that came in, separating the jumbled boxes of food by food type. Room representatives from each grade took a specific food group and, Moore said, the whole process took only a few minutes.
"They were very efficient, diligent and organized," Moore said. "For such a huge project to take on, they really made it work."
IN ADDITION TO the food drive, Little River holds a coat drive every January.
"We do it after the holidays so if students get coats or jackets as holiday gifts they can donate their old ones," Moore said. "Logically [the charities] usually run out of coats, we want to replenish their stock when it is one of the coldest months."
Moore said the charitable activities are designed to help students learn about the importance of giving to those less fortunate.
"We live in a very fortunate community," she said, "so to get involved in a community service project is important for students to help out and reach out to others. It is great to see students so willing to help."