The group, who were a part of the charitable organization the Garden City Service League of Boys, took it upon themselves to volunteer at The Inn located in Hempstead. The Inn is a non-profit and volunteer-based organization that provides a broad variety of essential services to assist those challenged by hunger, homelessness and profound poverty.
From there, they held an annual school supplies drive that was capped off with a record-breaking year in 2020.
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"We volunteered at The Inn once and then, we decided to do something fully for them," Prime explained. "We went with school supplies because that's what they said they really needed. We decided that we'd keep it going every year with a school supplies drive. Every year we emailed a bunch of people, we spread the word and collected as much as we could. We started four years ago and have done it ever since."
This year, the seniors had a little more time on their hands with their high-school soccer season having been postponed until March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In turn, the group was able to enhance their efforts and finish out their senior year having collected a whopping total of 80 packs of crayons, 45 backpacks, 57 pairs of safety scissors, 60 folders, 60 marble notebooks, 33 binders, 24 packs of loose leaf, 130 erasers, 150 pencils, 35 pens, 22 packs of colored pencils, 28 spiral notebooks and 11 packs of markers.
"We would usually be a little more occupied during the season," Prime said. "But I think we were able dedicate a little more attention to it and it showed with the record amount of school supplies received]."
Prime and his teammates are proud of their accomplishments these past four years, but are eager to find a group to carry on their annual effort in their absence as they head to college next fall.
"We're hoping someone fills our shoes to keep it going," Prime said. "We'll be on the lookout for some of the younger kids and hope they can pick it up for use when we go off to college."
Visit
[www.the-inn.org
for more information on how to get involved and ways to continue the charitable act previously established by Prime and his teammates.
