A year of giving back in Oceanside

It started in late September with a flyer to all students’ homes asking for food for Oceansiders in need. The Oceanside Community Service Holiday Drive had begun and would not stop until Dec. 17, when an outpouring of community volunteers and firefighters would drive hundreds of baskets of food and colorfully wrapped gifts to the homes of grateful community members.

But it’s the unseen hours, days and months in between that tell the real story of Oceanside’s generosity and selflessness in helping its own. Volunteers collected canned food at football games while others sold tickets for an iPad 2 raffle. Honor Society, Key Club, Habitat for Humanity, Girl Scouts and religious education students sorted thousands of cans in the OCS Food Pantry at School 6.

Community members came out big time to support OCS at its Annual Dinner Dance, helping to raise over $10,000.

Oceanside High School’s Annual Turkey Shoot delivered Thanksgiving baskets to a 193 families — 130 of them supplied by various clubs including 45 from Battle of the Classes. The Middle School Builders Club adopted 12 of those families. Schools 4, 5 and 9E provided 106 of the turkeys through an inter-school Turkey Challenge.

Activity continued to escalate! The Oceanside Federation of Teachers spearheaded its annual Toy Drive as more and more canned goods piled up at the schools and were carried off to the pantry for sorting. Calls went out through the new Oceanside Community Service Facebook page for volunteers to adopt a family. Postcards were mailed asking for HELP FOR THE HOLIDAYS. Girl Scouts created holiday gift cards and fancy gold bows. Drives at Schools 2, 3 and 8 acquired more turkeys.

Time was running short. The OFT Toy Sort arrived. There were 800 toys needed, plus 160 merchandise cards. Enough toys were received to provide each child under 12 with four gifts and every child over 12 with a $25 gift card and small gift. Once volunteers wrapped all the toys, Castleton Academy students formed a human “food chain” to move food from the pantry up into the Castleton gym, where administrators wheeled it up and down through rows of bins, distributing an assortment in each basket . All told, 185 baskets were assembled. Seventeen families were adopted by community members who put together food and gift baskets and dropped them off at the gym that day. Any remaining toys were donated to Oceanside Rotary Club’s Holiday Party the next day at the Knights of Columbus.

Dec. 17 came and went. But the last basket out the gym door was not the last of the giving. OCS will continue to give hope to community members in need by providing services ranging from out-going Food Pantry delivery to guidance through the Social Services system. We want people to know that they are not alone in the rough times of their lives — that there is a wonderful community behind them to support them. We only ask that when they get back on their feet, they pay it forward.

OCS believes one of its most important contributions to the community is the lesson it provides Oceanside school children. By having a community service organization in their district, students learn at an early age, and throughout their school years, that the person sitting next to them may be a person in need. They learn to give and not to judge. They experience the joy of helping those in need and are more than willing to help. This life-altering lesson in caring and giving is one they will take with them when they graduate and hold the rest of their lives.

Going forward, OCS will be operating from its new offices on Merle Avenue, partnering with local service groups and acting as an outlet for volunteer projects throughout Long Island — including a program to acquire refurbished laptops for students. Community members can stay in touch with Oceanside Community Service on our Facebook and through our link on the Oceanside Education Foundation website – www.schoolhousgreen.org.

This New Year will bring new challenges. OCS survives on the generosity of those who can support us. We simply ask you to please continue. The need is great and the solution lies within us.