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Ridgefield Kids Buy Games, Toys To Help Sandy Victims

RIDGEFIELD, Conn. — Hundreds of used board games, video games, stuffed animals and puzzles filled the tables at Ridgefield's Scotland Elementary School for a tag sale called Play It Forward for children and their families to buy and support their sister school, P.S. 104 in the Rockaways, N.Y.

Fifth-grader Isabel Trinkaus helps her teachers set up for the tag sale at Scoland Elementary School in Ridgefield. She said looks forward to being a pen pal with a student at P.S. 104.

Fifth-grader Isabel Trinkaus helps her teachers set up for the tag sale at Scoland Elementary School in Ridgefield. She said looks forward to being a pen pal with a student at P.S. 104.

Photo Credit: Alissa Smith
For teachers Wendy Hamann, Danielle Donovan and Cheryl Osher, the tag sale at Ridgefield's Scotland Elementary School is a way for them and their students to give back to a community that had lost everything.

For teachers Wendy Hamann, Danielle Donovan and Cheryl Osher, the tag sale at Ridgefield's Scotland Elementary School is a way for them and their students to give back to a community that had lost everything.

Photo Credit: Alissa Smith
Fifth-grader Drew Fortsen, 11, helps to set up the tag sale but also takes a look around at the merchandise.

Fifth-grader Drew Fortsen, 11, helps to set up the tag sale but also takes a look around at the merchandise.

Photo Credit: Alissa Smith
Most of the toys for sale at the Play it Forward Tag sale are marked at 50 cents to $5, but some items such as video games are priced higher.

Most of the toys for sale at the Play it Forward Tag sale are marked at 50 cents to $5, but some items such as video games are priced higher.

Photo Credit: Alissa Smith
Six-year-old Kathleen Galvin, a first-grader at Scotland Elementary School, looks at the some of the many games and toys for sale.

Six-year-old Kathleen Galvin, a first-grader at Scotland Elementary School, looks at the some of the many games and toys for sale.

Photo Credit: Alissa Smith
Pretty much every board game ever created, and several copies of each, are on sale at the Play it Forward tag sale that Ridgefield Scotland Elementary School held this week.

Pretty much every board game ever created, and several copies of each, are on sale at the Play it Forward tag sale that Ridgefield Scotland Elementary School held this week.

Photo Credit: Alissa Smith
First-grader Christopher Allesandrine plays with a giant stuffed horse during the tag sale at Ridgefield's Scotland Elementary school.

First-grader Christopher Allesandrine plays with a giant stuffed horse during the tag sale at Ridgefield's Scotland Elementary school.

Photo Credit: Alissa Smith

More than $2,500 was raised by the tag sale, with many toys leftover to take to P.S. 104 next Friday, said first grade teacher Danielle Donovan. Parents and residents are invited to help the school in its goal of raising $3,000 by Tuesday, Jan. 29.

The tag sale was the brainchild of Donovan, fifth grade teacher Cheryl Osher and third grade teacher Wendy Hamann. It was created as a way to support a community that still hasn't fully recovered from Hurricane Sandy.

“I think that the three of us were very affected,” Osher said. Donovan and Hamann have friends who live in that area of the Rockaways. After they decided to do a fundraiser, Donovan said she did some research and wound up communicating with P.S. 104.

Since the beginning of January, students have been bringing in old games from home, and parents volunteered to sort and price all of the donations.

“It’s kids helping kids,” said Donovan, “which was our main goal. We, as adults, are constantly helping, and I know a lot of the families here have gone down on the weekends and helped gut houses and bring donations and stuff, so we were like, 'Let’s make it a kids' function.'”

For fifth-grader Isabel Trinkaus, 10, helping to set up the gym for the sale and ultimately helping another school was fun. “I thought it was a good cause that they were helping people that didn’t have anything lately,” she said.

The tag sale is a fantastic idea, said Nicole Fortson, a mother of two at Scotland. “We have so much to offer here, we have so much to give,” Fortson said. “I just thought this was a great way to just help out. And helping the kids understand that there are people in need out there.”

The tag sale isn’t the only way Scotland is helping. The fifth-graders at Scotland and P.S.104 will be pen pals. In May, Scotland has invited the fifth-graders of P.S.104 to attend a field day in Connecticut.

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