Go Vote!

As many of you know, I love service work.

One of my favorite things about the school that my three oldest attend is their focus on service and helping those in need. My kids have participated in many projects since they have been in Kindergarten: they have made sandwiches for shelters, provided Christmas presents for families each year, raised funds to build wells in third world countries, raised money for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, raced for the cure and much, much more.

Howard Johnson's Give Happy Challenge has recognized the community service work of eight finalists from the U.S. and Canada, including a classroom of first graders from McDonogh! This class has picked bushels of apples and delivered them to a shelter, collected well over a thousand cans of food, made blankets and hygiene kits for the homeless and made and sold friendship pins to raise money for a school in India to provide healthy snacks.

The first graders need you to vote for them daily between now and May 16 at HoJo's Give Happy Challenge. Look for the image of the girl in the purple top, click the box below her picture, and vote for the first graders' video "It Starts With Me." Nationwide voting will determine which four go on to the next round. The winner will receive $15,000 to donate to their favorite charity.

If Mrs, Irving's first grade class wins, they will use the money to buy a new-used van for a group called Loaves and Fishes run by St. Ignatius Church in Baltimore. The group travels through the streets of the city on weekend nights feeding many men and women who are homeless and the van they use is literally falling apart. There are nights when they cannot get the door to stay shut and other nights when it just will not start.

Please, go out and vote for "It Starts with Me" today and every day between now and May 16th. Thanks for supporting this group of first graders!