Towamensing Elementary students raised more than $700 during the school’s recent Spirit Week for Family Promise of Carbon County, a local non-profit helping homeless and poverty stricken families in the area.

Around 20 members of Towamensing’s “Student Lighthouse” team presented a check, worth $722.50, to Karalyn Williams, who was representing Family Promise, on Wednesday morning.

“We are so thankful for all of the schools that help us out,” Williams said. “We run out of volunteers, donations and grant money so when we get contributions like this it goes toward assisting our families with clothing, food and the day-to-day things they need, but we’re also looking ahead to future plans to open a women’s shelter.”

Student Lighthouse team members collected money last week when the school held themed days such as “Favorite Color Day, Twin Day, Disney Day, Character Day, and Dress Like A Teacher Day.”

“I think compared to some of our other Spirit Days, more students really wanted to get involved this week,” Jacob Shafer, a Towamensing sixth grader and Student Lighthouse team member, said. “It’s really great to see the amount of money that was raised for Family Promise because they are helping people who really need it. It just gets everyone excited, especially Dress Like A Teacher Day because the younger students really seemed to enjoy that and have smiles on their faces.”

Family Promise is about a year into operating its new shelter in Nesquehoning and Williams said the organization has served about 40 families during that time.

“Our old model was the families went from church to church and now we have a static location for them, which brings more stability,” Williams said. “They actually get deeper roots in the area where they are residing. It’s been a huge success and it’s so important for them, especially the children, to have that support system.”

Family Promise is currently serving six families at its Nesquehoning shelter and has an active waiting list. Williams said turning anyone away is heartbreaking especially at this time of year.

“We do try to get families in other shelters but again, if they are from Carbon County they really want to stay here,” she said. “It’s really my job to get them in, get them settled and give them the resources and help they need to move on so we can keep serving new families.”

This marks the first year for the “Student Lighthouse” team in Towamensing under the district’s new “Leader In Me” program. Students are led by advisers Jodi Kocher, Lisa Ward and Kelly Beblavy.

“We’re really proud of the students as this is something new for us this year through Leader In Me,” Kocher said. “They wanted to do an entire Spirit Week coming back out of the holiday break and it was met with a tremendous amount of excitement and success.”

Towamensing has raised money before for various area organizations, but the efforts to support Family Promise this year are among its most successful.

“We have a tremendous group of students and families here and they really stepped up to support this cause,” Beblavy said.