Hitting the 100th day of a school year is a big deal for students, but for the kids at J. Milton Jeffrey Elementary School, it is also a chance to give back to the community. The students at Jeffrey just wrapped up another year of using the 100th day mark as an opportunity to support local community organizations.

The students at Jeffrey spend the week leading up to the 100th day of school (Feb. 13) learning about and collecting items for five different charities. This year the school supported the Madison Food Pantry, Forgotten Felines, Madison Youth & Family Services, the Dan Cosgrove Animal Shelter, and Smiles for Smilow, a charity founded by a Madison student that helps support preteens and teens going through cancer treatments at Smilow Cancer Center.

Principal Kathryn Hart said the 100th day of school is an important milestone for elementary students as it relates to numbers and placeholders, but the school wanted to take the celebration a step further.

“A few years ago, a teacher had an idea and brought it to our leadership team and said it would be a great idea to have a celebration where we try to collect 100 items for a charity,” she said.

Students are directly involved in selecting the charities and organizing involvement. Students from the 4th grade go around to each class and explain the effort and students use the morning announcements to share information about each of the charities. Hart said every grade, from kindergarten through 4th, participates and the school brings in representatives from each charity to speak with the students.

“Somebody comes from each one of those organizations and talks to the children about how these items are helpful, who uses them, where do they go, and how their generosity and kindness can make a difference,” she said. “Everybody might bring in and item or two, and then every small act of kindness adds up to make a big difference.”

Hart said the students are involved in every step of the process and that it is important to get kids involved at a young age.

“I think their passion and excitement is already there and it is genuine,” she said. “I think that it helps them grow up to have this mindset that they get as much joy from giving to others as what they get back in return is equally rewarding.”

The school usually supports four charities a year, but Hart said the passion and excitement of two 3rd grade students, Maddalena and Gabriel Ruggiero Cesar, encouraged her to add a fifth charity to the roster this year. The kids, who described themselves as “cat crazy,” wanted to support Forgotten Felines, a no-kill cat shelter, this year.

“They met with me, they had a proposal of what they wanted to do—they helped make posters, they advertised it,” she said.

Gabriel Ruggiero Cesar said he and his family started volunteering with Forgotten Felines years ago after they rescued a cat. He said he wanted to continue to help the organization and include the charity in the 100th day celebration.

“We were going to Forgotten Felines a lot and it is not a very popular charity and I felt like they were not getting enough donations and they just needed some help,” he said. “They have a lot of cats and I love cats a lot and I wanted to help them and be kind to the kitties.”

His sister, Maddalena Ruggiero Cesar said she was happy to see all of her classmates and friends help support this organization. Knowing know that her efforts made a difference, she said she wants to keep volunteering as she gets older.

“It made me feel really proud and happy about the accomplishment and that all of these kitties are going to be well-fed and have a lot of help for finding homes,” she said.