Students Donate Thanksgiving Placemats

Ridge Park Charter Academy students recently decorated over 1,000 dinner placemats and donated them to Mel Trotter Ministries, a local homeless shelter, for their annual Thanksgiving Community Meal. The school has participated in this effort for over a decade, decorating and donating more than 15,000 themed placemats for the event during that time.

“Our students look forward to this every year,” said Lisa Walejewski, fifth-grade interventionist at Ridge Park. “They know they are doing this for people who are less fortunate and that their placemats will be used during the Thanksgiving meal.”

The students enjoyed creating unique placemats that featured various fall and Thanksgiving-themed designs. This school-wide project tied into the moral focus virtue of the month; gratitude, which encouraged students to be grateful for the things they have.

“We all need to realize how grateful we are for the things we take for granted,” shared Walejewski.

The Mel Trotter dinner was hosted on Thanksgiving Day, and the festive event fed over 1,000 people from the Grand Rapids area.