In December, Manhattan Prep took part in three separate holiday drives. We collected non-perishable food to be donated to New York’s City Harvest with a goal of collecting a minimum of 100 pounds of food items and/or the estimated equivalent in monetary donations. We also collected children’s toys to be donated to the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation with a  goal of collecting a minimum of 50 new toys to be distributed to needy children in NYC. Finally, we collected warm clothing to be donated to the  New York Cares Coat Drive. We aimed to collect as many new or gently used coats as possible to be distributed to those affected by Hurricane Sandy in Staten Island, the Rockaways and other hard hit areas. After a month of collections, we surpassed the goals for both our food and toy drives in addition to collecting over a dozen coats for those in need. Furthermore, our sister company mbaMission, graciously matched our food donation to City Harvest with an additional $250 donation. Thank you to all of our staff, instructors and students who participated!

The following is written by Manhattan Prep College Marketing Associate Kristen Pittard.

New York Cares Day is a day dedicated to service for in-need elementary schools around the five boroughs, where people volunteer their time to renovate schools by painting, restoring playgrounds, organizing libraries, planting flowers, etc.

Last month, a group of Manhattan Preppers made their way to PS 137k, a school that has served the Brooklyn community for over 100 years, to participate in the rejuvenation of the interior by focusing on repainting the main hallway. With rollers and paint brushes in hand and a mint green color picked by the school principal, we were ready to go. After nearly 7 hours of painting, we had transformed an intense red and yellow hallway, into a calming mint green one, just in time for the students to arrive back to school the following Monday. Though we might be better at Data Sufficiency and Reading Comprehension than painting, it was a great experience for our staff to get together on a weekend to give back to the community.

New York Cares Day was a perfect fit for Manhattan Prep due to our core belief in helping students reach their educational goals – and who better to help than the children of New York? If you would like to get involved with any future New York Cares’ projects, they have thousands of projects listed on their website, which range from children’s education to working with the elderly of New York.