During the spring break that never ended in 2020, Aaron received an email asking for help at The Warming House, an SBU-sponsored student-led soup kitchen in Olean, NY, believed to be the oldest student-run soup kitchen in the United States. With the students gone for an indefinite amount of time, they needed some help from the faculty and the community to be sure all who needed to be fed would continue to be fed.

So, that summer, Aaron and Bethanne juggled kids and masks and time while trying to help out at the Warming House. During Aaron's first visit, he spoke with Alice Miller Nation and happened to mention that we had a 9 year old who loves to help.  Her response?  Bring her along too...we can find lots of things for her to help with around the kitchen. So, we did.

Without any doubt, this quickly became Claire's favorite activity of the summer.  She helped chop food, prepare meals, set up the assembly line for the meals, collected tickets from the guests, handed out meals, and became the runner for all things needed. She even got to plan and cook one of the meals.

In the summer of 2021, Dylan got to join in the fun and they  noweven have a special stepstool set up so that Dilly can wash her hands often. The girls are now counting down the days until they are fully vaccinated so they can return over Christmas break. 

In order to be sure that through these very difficult times, The Warming House has enough supplies, they are raising money on the Giving Tuesday that has become the hallmark of the holiday season.  We would like to help. Please consider giving to our (Claire's and Dylan's) charity of choice. We can give you a million reasons why, but the one that stands out the most to us is that this is the charity that is teaching our girls what it REALLY means to help others. They are able to see kindness, in action, every single time they went, and there is no substitute for that.