Key Club Helps Nanina's In The Park Help The Less Fortunate

Key Club members spent five hours helping the employees at Nanina’s In The Park put together baskets of food for Thanksgiving for the less fortunate and load them into trucks on Tuesday, November 22. Key Club Vice President Elizabeth DeSantis said, “It’s nice that Key Club always makes an effort to get the student body involved in events like these. Not only is it something that the employees at Nanina’s appreciate, but it’s a very small portion of our day that we dedicate to a better cause, which makes us feel better as well.”

When they arrived at the event, the club members walked into a room full with hundreds of baskets covering the floor and food stacked up on top of tables. Members were paired in groups of three or four and assigned a specific food to put in each basket. Freshman Tessa Murray said, “The group that I was working with was in charge of making sure each basket had a box of crackers. Once all the baskets had crackers, we were instructed to put a nutcracker in each basket and so on.” 

Each basket needed to meet a specific criteria of food before being allowed to get taken outside and loaded into a truck. Junior Bryanna Martins said, “At the beginning of the event it was very easy because all my group and I were in charge of was putting apple cider in the baskets and then whatever we were assigned next; however, once the baskets were getting more full it got very hectic. Everyone was running around counting the goods in each basket, making sure everything was accounted for.” 

Once it was confirmed that all the baskets were filled with the correct amount of goods, volunteers brought the baskets outside. Sophomore Amaya Negron said, “One of the employees at Nanina’s gave me a cart that held five baskets so it would make the process of bringing the baskets from inside to outside a lot easier.”

While most employees and members worked to bring the baskets outside, the rest were inside making sure everything was accounted for. Sophomore Vincenza Gabriele said, “It was very stressful because we all thought that the baskets had everything they needed; but, once we realized that they didn’t, we were running around like crazy trying to fill them up with what they were missing.” 

After the final touches were made the rest of the baskets were brought outside by club members and loaded into the trucks. Key Club Secretary Marcella Blancato said, “We as officers are all very appreciative of the immense amount of help provided by the club members, as well as the employees from Nanina’s. This is for such a great cause and I’m looking forward to the club participating in this event again next year.