Students at the St. Charles Children’s Learning Center (CLC) at the College of Southern Maryland (CSM) are learning about giving. The CLC staff and parents have donated 1,185 items of non-perishable food with a goal of restocking the Southern Maryland Food Bank after Thanksgiving.
“We made the food drive more interesting by having a battle of the classes to see which class along with parents can donate the most items,” said CLC Director Shirley Allen. “It has been amazing to see parents walking in with bags of items. One parent donated 75 items to the food bank … We want to thank the parents for all of the donations.”
The Preschool III (Squirrels and Chipmunks) class ended up donating the most.
“The project allowed the children to experience the joy of giving,” Allen said. “It was a wonderful thing.”
The CLC has been in operation for 11 years and is accredited by the Maryland State Department of Education. The center provides CSM students, faculty and staff, as well as community members, quality, child-centered care for more than 100 students from ages 8 weeks to 12 years old. The center has 10,000 square feet of learning space, including nine child-centered classrooms, a gymnasium and a prep kitchen. In addition, the center has its own private landscaped playground and access to the campus grounds.
For information on the CLC, visit http://clc.csmd.edu/.