The Year II students at JEMS recently sponsored a successful Personal Care Holiday Drive to support local refugee families in Syracuse. The students started the drive after reading the novel “A Long Walk to Water” by Linda Sue Park.

JEMS partnered with Syracuse Refugee & Immigrant Self-Empowerment (RISE) to collect personal care items to be delivered to community members in time for the Thanksgiving Holiday.

That included everything from toiletries to games and books.

Once the collection was complete, representatives from RISE came to JEMS to talk about the work they do as an organization and the importance of accepting others.