The students at Hope Highlands Elementary School have been hard at work over the past few weeks, as they’ve been designing, creating and constructing, learning about state symbols and mottos, and adding, subtracting and dividing, all in the name of generosity and kindness.

This year, the school’s annual canned goods drive took on some unique characteristics as naked turkeys made their home in the school lobby, and Eiffel Towers, baseball stadiums and race cars began to take shape in the school’s hallways.

As this year’s drive began, under the direction of special educator Kathryn Ciresi and her team of Student Council representatives, each classroom was assigned a specific non-perishable food item to collect, with a tricky stipulation – they must use their collection of that item to create and construct something which would then be judged in a school-wide contest. The non-perishable food items would then be collected and combined into Thanksgiving baskets for needy families in the community.

At the same time, the school’s art teacher, Paul Carpentier, posted a family of turkeys, one turkey per classroom, in the lobby, each one missing something critical – their tail feathers. The turkeys were, in fact, naked. They could only earn them back if the students brought in a dollar. Each dollar donated would equal one turkey feather. A friendly competition would ensue as the students raced to feather their naked turkeys throughout the weeks.

Ciresi was proud of her Student Council members for taking on the annual giving event and providing it with a new twist, and proud of the time they put in, giving up their lunches and recesses counting dollars, cutting feathers and feathering turkeys. As the days went on and the monetary donations came in, the turkeys were so full of feathers, they threatened to fall over under the weight of their newfound plumage.

“Usually the PTO runs this,” PTO President Lorilyn Hall said. “We usually are able to bring in slightly over $100 each year. The students far surpassed those numbers this year.”

The money would be donated to COZ, which would then use it to help local Cranston families in need through the upcoming holidays.

Last Thursday, Principal Roxanne Gustafson along with a team of judges consisting of Grace Swinski and Lisa Milson from COZ, Ciresi and several of her students, and Cranston Herald reporter Jen Cowart toured the hallways taking pictures and notes before returning to deliberate and chose the best of the can construction projects. Two winners were chosen, one from the primary grades and one from the upper grades. In addition, the final dollars were totaled from the naked turkey contest.

At the end of the day, the winners were announced. The winning classrooms would receive dodgeball game against Gustafson, but due to the overwhelming response, each classroom would had earned an extra half hour of recess.

According to Gustafson, the naked turkey contest brought in a whopping $1,300. The two winning classrooms for the can construction contest were the first-graders in Cathy Long’s class for their baseball stadium construction, and the fourth-graders in Caren Signore’s classroom for their Jello Giving Tree construction.