From April 3 until April 13, Erin Lafferty will be collecting new stuffed animals, coloring books, crayons and reading books. The items will be donated to the New Market Volunteer Fire Department.

The Fire Department will then give the items to children who are:

• Accident victims
• Crime victims
• Witnesses to a crime
• Experiencing traumatic event
• Coping with loss
• Sick and/or injured

Erin Lafferty said, “The inspiration for my project came from a great non-profit organization called Project Smile based in New England.

Project Smile is a federally tax exempt non-profit organization. There goal is to provide all emergency respondents with comfort items to help ease the pain and fear of traumatized children.

There are donation boxes at the following places:

• Linganore High School in the front office
• New Market Elementary School
• New Market Chiropractic
• Bethesda Game Studios
• York’s Automotive

The boxes at businesses will be collecting until April 25th.