Crazy Hat Day kicks off Johnston's Rachel E. Carson Memorial Scholarship clothing drive

By PETE FONTAINE
Posted 1/20/22

WANTED: Gently-used men’s, women’s and children’s clothing. All donations will be graciously accepted and will benefit the Rachel E. Carson Memorial Scholarship that’s …

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Crazy Hat Day kicks off Johnston's Rachel E. Carson Memorial Scholarship clothing drive

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WANTED: Gently-used men’s, women’s and children’s clothing. All donations will be graciously accepted and will benefit the Rachel E. Carson Memorial Scholarship that’s presented annually to a student at Johnston High School.

If either JHS Music Department Chairman Ron Lamoureux or Choir-Chorus Conductor Matt Gingras were to place an advertisement, it most likely would have read something like the lines above to help fund the prestigious scholarship that is supported by the Music Department’s unique Savers FunDrive.

“A good deal of what we do at this time of year is in Rachel’s memory,” Lamoureux said of the once highly-popular and late JHS music student who passed away on January 14, 2019, after being stricken with leukemia. “This is Rachel’s fourth anniversary and we want it to be a record-breaking FunDrive.”

That’s why the JHS Music Department is again holding the Savers FunDrive that last year brought in 4,037 pounds of gently used clothing and the tidy sum of $1,084.25 for the scholarship.

Although the drive has been going for a while, the Lamoureux-Gingras tandem — as well as adult volunteers who make-up the Johnston Schools Music Association — are making a last-minute push in hopes of surpassing this year’s goal of collecting 5,000 pounds of clothing.

“Savers is paying just a bit less than (last) year,” Lamouruex explained while noting “the drive will end next Wednesday (Jan. 23) and we’ll deliver the clothing to Savers in Warwick the next day, so we really want to hit the 5,000 pounds goal in order to match the earnings from last January. We have about one ton right now but are going to need a good push in the next couple of weeks to his the goal.”

Anyone who would like to make a clothing donation should call Lamoureux at 401-233-1920 Ext. 2102 for a pick-up. People are also used to drop items off at Johnston High School during school hours.

Last Friday, the Music Department celebrated its annual Crazy Hat Day which brought in an almost equal distribution of donations from the JHS faculty, staff and student body that Lamoureux said “is a bit more than we did for our kick-off day last year and we’re encouraged that we can end up with more in the scholarship fund that we collected las year. We’ll keep collecting money for the scholarship until our annual luncheon on Feb. 13.”

He also announced that the JHS Music Department Calendar Sale which was originally scheduled to be held in February has been moved to March in support of the PTSO (Parent-Teacher-Student Organization) that will conduct its annual Calendar Raffle next month.

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