Student Council members from Towamensing Elementary helped sort bags of clothing, shoes and housewares on Thursday at the VALOR Clinic for veterans in Kunkletown.

"I thought it was really fun helping veterans get clothes and blankets," said fifth-grader Riley Fallon, 10.Stacey Olewine, a reading specialist at the school, helped chaperone the trip, which was organized by the school's counselor Jody Kocher. Their co-worker suggested VALOR for the students' service project this year."It's pretty neat," Olewine said. "It's a huge operation."In addition to running a house where homeless veterans can stay for three to six months to help them get back on their feet, VALOR also runs distribution days of the donated items to people in need.VALOR, which stands for Veterans Assisted Living Out Reach, runs "Stand Downs" twice a month. At Dansbury Park on Day Street in East Stroudsburg, they open up boxes of clothes, blankets, housewares and other items for people who are down on their luck to come in and take what they need, said Larry, whose last name is being withheld for privacy reasons. Larry is a former homeless veteran who lives at the VALOR house. Every item donated to the organization is inventoried and logged out when someone selects it. Their slogan is "A Hand Up on the Homefront."The organization also runs what they call "Rolling Stand Downs." VALOR takes a box truck and goes to Easton, Bethlehem and Allentown and distributes items to the homeless and others in need."You don't realize how much we appreciate your help," he said to Olewine, while the students busily sorted clothes and blankets.The student council consists of 20 students in third grade through fifth grade. Not all of the members were available to participate in the service project, but most were there. Each classroom is allowed to select two students to represent it on the student council, Olewine said.The members are active in the school and run events such as fundraisers and food drives. Last fall, they raised about $100 for VALOR, and then had the whole school make cards in November for veterans on Veterans Day. In January, they ran a food drive and collected soup for the local food bank and peanut butter for VALOR. Olewine said VALOR suggested peanut butter before the drive because it is a good source of protein, won't go bad and is something homeless people can keep without refrigeration. That just left this project for spring."They were so excited to come here today," she said.Third-grader Shelby Soldridge, 9, said her favorite part about volunteering to sort clothes was "helping veterans stay safe."The students went through about 25 bags in a couple hours, Kocher said. Some of the items couldn't be kept, because they weren't in a good enough condition to give away. The children were told to look for spots, stains, rips, missing buttons, broken zippers and similar problems."Even the homeless don't want to run around in clothes that are stained or have holes," Larry said.Those items were placed in a pile to be given to another organization that will recycle them, Olewine said."What can't be used gets sent to another place and turned into rags," she said."None of it really goes to waste," Larry said.