Above: For the fifth year, Southborough’s Lauren Dratch and Caroline Sullivan, are raising funds to buy gifts for children in the hospital over the holidays. (contributed photo from Christmas 2016)
Across the country today, people are celebrating Giving Tuesday. It’s always a great excuse to update you on two Southborough girls who continue to embody the spirit of the day. It also gives you a chance to double your “giving”. You can buy gifts for people you care about while funding gifts for sick children.
Pretzels for Presents
In 2015, Lauren Dratch and Caroline Sullivan successfully launched “Pretzels for Presents”. The Southborough middle schoolers sold gourmet pretzels to raise money for a worthy cause. Proceeds were used to buy presents for patients who are stuck in the hospital through the holidays.
That year they delivered a full carload of gifts to Children’s. More recently, they have been collecting for Shriner’s Children’s Hospital:
The children receiving care there are mainly burn victims and children with cleft lips and palates, and they come from all around the world. The people at Shriners work hard to make the hospital feel like a home away from home for them, and the best part is they are able to treat these kids without charge.
Every year since, the community has generously participated, allowing them to deliver overflowing sleighs full of gifts to the children receiving care.
You can help them with their cause again this holiday season by purchasing a pack of 4 candy coated pretzel rods for $5. This year’s choices are:
- Milk chocolate crushed candy cane topping
- White chocolate with crushed oreo topping
Orders must be emailed by Monday, December 17th.
To purchase pretzels or donate directly to their cause, email Caroline Sullivan at carolinesullivan@stmarksschool.org or Lauren Dratch at laurendratch@gmail.com. For more details, click here to read their flyer.
You can also watch them in this WCVB “5 for Good” spotlight from a previous year:
It is great to see Ms. Dratch and Ms. Sullivan devoting their time and effort on a worthy cause. There is also another way that everyone can assist the Shriner’s Hospitals, which provide free vital medical services to children in North America. As a Mason, we collect the metal tabs off of beverage cans (soda, beer, ect.). These are recycled and all of these funds go directly to the hospitals. If anyone would like to collect and donate these tabs, email me at mep@inbox.com and I will come get them and deliver them to the Shriners.