Several times throughout the school year we request participation from our Franklin families to participate in Community Awareness projects. We gather canned goods, fruit, books, small toys, or sandwich ingredients to donate to area shelters and help the children understand the need to give to those less fortunate than themselves. Some of our projects are annual events, others relate to current events nearby or in our world community.

In the past, Franklin children and their families have assembled "goodie packages" delivered to firefighters, rescue workers and police officers working to restore the Pentagon; collected baby wipes that are in high demand for cleansing during field operations for our soldiers in Iraq; as "children helping children" made donations to help rebuild an orphanage devastated by the Tsunami in Sri Lanka; and sent toiletries to survivors of Hurricane Katrina. Annual projects include the following:

Feeling it's never too early for children to learn to respect and care for all creatures great and small, The Franklin Schools have proudly adopted Friends of Montgomery County Animals (FMCA) as a "pet project." FMCA is a Montgomery County based non-profit, humane organization established in 1974. Support goes to the cats & dogs and horses too through the donation of money, animal toys, canned & dried pet food, pet carriers and more!

As part of our classroom Thanksgiving celebration, we create food baskets for families in our area who are in need. Parents are asked to choose with their child a non-perishable food from one of the Basic Four Food Groups discussed in class. Boxes for the food are decorated in a fall theme by the children.

Many years ago our namesake, Benjamin Franklin, coined the phrase, "A penny saved is a penny earned." In observance of Presidents' Day and as part of our commitment to community outreach, we sponsor a Penny Drive. All proceeds are donated to the Children's Inn at NIH in Bethesda. February always finds it "raining pennies" as Franklin families shower us with pennies!

April finds us with a real "breadwinner" of an idea as we ask Franklin families to donate a lunch food item to add to our boxes of sandwich "fixin's" to go to area shelters. Deli meats, cheeses, bread, fruit, chips, pretzels, pickles and napkins head our list of yummy lunch fare.