By LINDA KELLETT

C-S-E News Staff

FORT PLAIN — Crackling paper, snipping scissors, the scratchy stretching of sticky tape, and the din of about 40 students’ voices will sound from  the Fort Plain Junior-Senior High School today (Thursday) as members of the school’s peer-mentor group gather to wrap and label gifts purchased with donations for some of the district’s 100 or so Gram Lorraine recipients this holiday.

Lip smacking will also be heard with the delivery of pizzas, purchased with funds from the Herkimer County Hunger Coalition in appreciation for the school group’s involvement with the charitable giving program. It’s now in its sixth year at the Fort Plain school district.

Hunger Coalition founder Ray Lenarcic last week said the Gram Lorraine program grew out of a late-1970s initiative at Herkimer County Community College.

Lenarcic, who was a professor at the college at the time, said a student from Long Island noticed children in the village walking to school in the winter with threadbare coats and asked, “Can we do anything about it?”

The Adopt-a-Child program, which provided four items of clothing to needy children in the community, was the result.

That first year, 200 children were reached, Lenarcic said.

The program has since continued in local schools under the auspices of the hunger coalition with individual and group sponsors from the school, businesses, community, churches and other organizations.

Fort Plain is currently the only district in Montgomery County that participates in the program, which was renamed in honor of Lenarcic’s wife’s mother.

Last year — for the third straight year — he said over 1,000 children in eight school districts, the HARC, and Herkimer BOCES migrant worker program were recipients of four items of clothing, shoes, boots, or a coat, and a toy, book or game under the Gram Lorraine program.

Lori Fredericks, a speech teacher at the Harry Hoag School, said school Nurse Kris Kirkpatrick started the program locally.

When Kirkpatrick retired, she passed the mantle onto Fredericks, who is assisted by four other district staffers: Teaching Assistant Paula Colvin, Pre-Kindergarten Teacher Joanne Kennedy, Special Education Teacher Beth Close, Junior-Senior High School Nurse Tara Hayes and Junior-Senior High School Guidance Counselor Colleen Cushing.

Fredericks said the names of former program recipients were gleaned from Kirkpatrick and Julie Crouse, who serves as the Fort Plain program coordinator for the hunger coalition.

Additionally, Fredericks asked for recommendations from district nurses, guidance counselors, and pre-kindergarten and kindergarten teachers, “because they’re new kids,” she said.

Additionally, classroom teachers were asked to submit the names of students.

Crouse said parents of the children were then contacted, informed that their child or children had been selected for inclusion in the program, and asked if they would like to participate.

Fredericks said the parents are generally very receptive to the program. She only had one decline to participate.

If the parents are interested, sponsors are sought, Crouse said.

She noted that she sends letters to businesses, family members, friends, instructional and non-instructional school staff, groups like SADD, and the like.

“We then match up the children with sponsors. The parents give us sizes” and a clothing wish list, she said, noting they also indicate what toy, book or game the child might like.

Crouse said the sponsors, parents and children never know who each other are. All interactions are confidential.

“It’s all on a first-name basis. The child gets a number, age and sex,” she said.

There’s no set dollar amount, but one child’s gifts generally average between $60 to $100, Crouse said.

“Some sponsors buy what’s on the list. Some people just give us monetary donations, and we do the shopping. This is a group effort,” she added, noting that the peer-mentor group was assigned the group of children for whom monetary donations were given.

The gift-wrapping pizza party is tonight for the gifts that were purchased on those students’ behalf.

Cushing, who is a co-advisor of the peer-mentor group, said it’s based on the Big Brothers-Big Sisters model and matches middle school students (the mentees) with juniors and seniors (the mentors). “It helps [the younger students] academically and socially,” she said.

When asked her views about the group’s involvement with the Gram Lorraine project, 8th grader Angenese Gomez said, “I think we’re doing this for a really good cause, and we’re helping out a lot.”

Senior Krista Kazilas said, “It means a lot to me to help others.”

Fredericks said school staff have been working on the program about a month.

Crouse said they’re hoping to have all of the sponsors’ gifts turned into the school by Monday, Dec. 3, for distribution to the parents Thursday, Dec. 6.