GDS Family Community Service an enormous success!!!
Saturday, April 26, close to 60 GDS parents and students showed up at Lower Middle School to put together Boxes for Soldiers, which will be shipped to soldiers serving in Iraq and Afganistan. In addition to packing boxes with badly-needed toiletries, families decorated t-shirts for the soldiers to give to children and wrote letters to the troops.

Much thanks to Rae Carole for collecting phone cards. And to Sue Cohn, who along with Jessica Gladstone and Becky Wolsk, organized this fantastically successful project.

Community Service Bake Sales Raise Nearly $2000 for Charity
On Monday, April 14 we held the last bake sale, sponsored by 2d and 3d grades, raising approximately $560 for Sasha Bruce Youthworks (selected by 2d) and Centro Nia (selected by 3d).  Along with the two bake sales held in February, the first sponsored by preK/K and 5th grade, the second sponsored by 1st and 4th grades, it brought the bake sale total to nearly $2000.  Proceeds from the previous two bake sales were donated to Oxfam, the Washington Animal Rescue League, My Sister's Place and the Earth Conservation Corps.

Mount Pleasant Fire Victim Response Project
The GDS community responded so generously to the plight of the families who lost their homes in the Mount Pleasant fire!  Just before spring break we delivered an entire school bus load of clothes, linens, household items, food and other supplies to the Bancroft Elementary School's Early Intervention Center for distribution to families affected by the fire.  Our donations were met with great appreciation.

January Help the Hungry Projects
Over Martin Luther King weekend, GDS families baked 72 casseroles, each large enough to feed up to 25 people, for distribution by DC Central Kitchen to organizations that provide meals to the hungry. So, we provided a nutritious, home-cooked meal for 1800 people. In addition, GDS families donated 785 pounds of canned and other non-perishable food to the Capital Area Food Bank.

LMS Thanksgiving Canned Food Drive
The GDS community donated cans of food for the annual Thanksgiving canned food drive to support the Capital Area Community Food Bank.

Thanksgiving Family Pie Bake
As of Monday morning, November 19, GDS had collected 205 home-baked apple pies--a record number! The pies, made at home by Lower School families and at school by Middle School families, will be served as part of CCNV's annual Thanksgiving meal for 3,000 homeless and hungry people in the DC area. Much thanks to PSA Community Service Co-Chairs Sue Cohn and Jessica Gladstone for organizing the Lower and Middle School activities, and to Patricia McCole of the High School Science Department for providing enough pie dough for forty pies.
— Elsa Newmyer

Used-Coat Drive
GDS collected more than 70 jackets and coats from October 30-November 12 for children in need.   Thanks from the community service team to all who went through their closets and brought in outgrown or unused coats. 

Halloween Costume Drive
The GDS Community Service team collected over 100 costumes which were received with excitement by grateful children.

School Supplies Drive
Deadline: Friday, September 14, 2007

When shopping for school supplies, GDS families picked up extra items for the kids at Bancroft Elementary. GDS 5th graders, 7th graders, and HS students work with the kids at this DC public school throughout the school year, and they need notebooks, binders, lined paper, construction paper, pencils, rulers, crayons, markers, art supplies, etc. All of the supplies provided were greatly appreciated and put to good use.

Family Community Service Green Project
Plant and Planter Sale - On Saturday, April 28, GDS families assembled and sold customized planters and window boxes with herbs, vegetables, and flowers grown at the High School and donated from the gardens of GDS families. The money raised by the sale was donated to Washington Parks and People and other local "green" organizations.

Construction Project
On Saturday, April 28, at 45 Nicholson Street, NW, 7th-12th grade students and their parents joined the work crew at 45 Nicholson Street, NW, to help repair a home which belonging to an 85 year-old woman in need.

Summer 2006 Community Service Trip to New Orleans
Read an article written by a GDS parent who chaperoned the trip and view photos!

February: Meals for Food and Friends
On Saturday, February 10, the GDS community delivered meals to Food and Friends (www.foodandfriends.org) clients who are homebound due to HIV/AIDS or other life-threatening illnesses.

DVD Player and DVD Drive to Support Injured Soldiers at Bethesda Naval Hospital
GDS collected DVDs and DVD players for soldiers recovering from surgery at the Bethesda Naval Hospital.