Thank you, Webster, from Julia, Lily and Penny!

You might remember a few weeks ago I wrote about an ambitious Bronze Award project that three young Webster Girl Scouts were working on.

Junior Scouts Julia Meyers, Lily Pettit and Penny Patterson from Troop 60344, all fifth graders from Klem North Elementary School, were collecting games, puzzles, children’s books, colored pencils, crayons, markers and craft kits for children in need. The donations would then be sorted, organized and donated to Family Promise, a Rochester-based organization which assists families at risk of homelessness.

To promote the month-long project, the young ladies posted announcements online, designed flyers to hang around town, and arranged for the Webster School District to send a notice home to all of the district’s families. Finally, they secured several local agencies to serve as host sites for collection boxes. Once everything was in place, they could only wait, hoping people would notice, and their efforts would result in at least a few donations.

The Webster community did more than notice; they responded with overwhelming generosity.

Donations immediately started pouring in, filling the collection bins many times over. Wish lists they’d posted on Amazon for bags, games, activity books, puzzles, crafts, crayons and markers were promptly filled. Several people emailed directly, asking how they could help. Neighbors dropped items off at the house, school friends handed over even more. By the end of April, the young Scouts had collected an estimated 1,500 or more items (actually, they kind of lost count). About a week later, they trucked them all over to the Gathering Place Rochester, where 30 or so family members, neighbors and friends helped them pack 151 “kid kits” for children in need.

Julia, Lily and Penny are thrilled with their project’s success, and know that it wouldn’t have been possible without the incredible support of the Webster community. And for that support, they want to send out a HUGE thank you.

“We never thought that it would go as well as it did,” Lily said, to which Penny added, “I didn’t think we were going to have that much stuff. At the most we thought we’d have 500 items.”

“We really appreciate everyone who donated, filled the Amazon list, and came to the Gathering Place event,” Julia said. Not to mention the businesses that provided space for the donation bins, and the Gathering Place for hosting the sorting and organizing session. It was truly a community effort, driven in large part by countless anonymous donors.

“That’s why we’re doing this community thank you, so we can thank them all.”

Here’s a great video from the Gathering Place event which shows the amazing number of donations received (thank you Emily P. for the video!):

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(posted 5/14/2026)

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