CAT Pickering Students Collect Hedgehog Food and More for Troops

Editor's Note: Thanks to representatives of the Chester County Intermediate Unit for submitting the following news. To send information to Phoenixville Patch, e-mail Lynn.Jusinski@patch.com. 

Puzzle books, hot chocolate, tissues, and hedgehog food may seem like an unlikely combination.

However, they are all items that were shipped to a Marine Forward Operating Base (FOB) in Afghanistan from students at the Center for Arts and Technology (CAT) Pickering Campus and their families.

With the holidays fast approaching, the School Success Strategies class at CAT Pickering has been collecting items to include in care packages for Marines at a FOB in Afghanistan.

According to Heather Mulford, the CAT Pickering Social Studies teacher who coordinated the project, although the exact location is top secret, she is aware of a few other facts about the base.

“My sister’s husband is currently stationed at the base,” said Mulford. “He cannot reveal his exact location, but I can tell you that it is a small base without a lot of luxuries.”

So, Mulford’s brother-in-law provided a list of items needed at the base such as bars of soap, powder, bottles of water and baby wipes. Other items soldiers might appreciate were also added to the list and include magazines, treats of any kind, personalized holiday cards, and, yes, hedgehog food. The base was able to adopt two hedgehogs as pets, which is where the hedgehog food comes into play.

Mulford’s class has been collecting the items for a number of weeks. Since it can take about a month for the packages to arrive at the base, they were mailed the week of Dec. 4 in the hopes that they arrive in time for Christmas.

A few items Cole Callow, a ninth-grade School Success Strategies student from Phoenixville Area School District, brought included powder, beef jerky, gum, M&Ms, Band-Aids and tissues.

“They’re fighting for our country. They’re trying to protect our freedom, our rights, and our identity as a country,” said Callow. “We need to support them in any way we can to make them feel most comfortable so they can perform their duties correctly.”

The School Success Strategies course is designed primarily for ninth-grade students and focuses on academic and social responsibility as they relate to success in a school setting. The social responsibility aspect is enhanced through relevant service projects, such as this one.

“It’s important for high school students to participate in a community project so we feel a sense of belonging in the community and also have a sense of what’s going on,” said Callow.

According to Mulford, the class’s next large project will begin in February when they take part in the 2012 Philabundance Food Drive. This year, the class is aiming to collect roughly 14,000 pounds of food, which is almost double the amount collected last year. In the meantime, the class is preparing by studying the different aspects of poverty.