Greater Johnstown School District

Trojan Spirit of Giving

By Dr. Barbara Parkins, Superintendent

We truly have a Trojan Spirit of Giving that resonates throughout the GJSD family.  Our willingness to give and help those less fortunate has and will continue to make a positive impact throughout our community.

It is impossible to list all the many acts of kindness but here are just a few of the charitable causes that members of the GJSD family helped in the past few months:

• The Key Club’s “Empty Bowls-Hunger Awareness Project” that focused on increasing awareness and raising funds for the problem of human hunger both here at home and throughout the world. 
• Andrew Wilcox, a senior at JHS, created “The Outdoors Classroom” as part of his Eagle scout/school-community project to improve Greater Johnstown neighborhoods. 
• Third, fourth, and fifth graders at East Side Elementary participated in the St. Jude Math-a-thon and raised $2,000 for the patients of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
• Grade 5 students at West Side collected money to benefit a fellow student and the student’s family after a fire destroyed their home.    
• Students and staff at West Side collected enough non-perishable items to fill 20 boxes of food that were donated to the local food pantry in time for Thanksgiving. 
• Middle school students saved their pennies as part of the 16^th annual Million Pennies Campaign for East Seals to raise money for those with speech and hearing disabilities. 

Your willingness to think of and help others continually impresses me.  We all benefit from the TrojanSpirit of Giving and it is yet another way that our district is special.