BRIDGEPORT — Eleven Bridgeport Middle School students collected gloves, mittens, hats and scarves for those in need this month as a community service project headed up by their Talented and Gifted teacher, Susann Deihl.

The eighth-graders named their winter item collection project “Holly Jolly Help for the Hopeful,” and asked for donations from the student body of Bridgeport Elementary and Middle School. The donations went to the Bridgeport Friendship Council of Churches, who distributed the items from St. Paul Lutheran Church of Bridgeport on Wednesday.

The students helped with the delivery and distribution of their collected items at the church.

“They do this community service project together. I also have them do recycling, which is a school service project, and they do the morning announcements each morning,” said Deihl.

“They are awesome. I just sit there and watch them, they get the announcements organized – they just take over. They do the recycling on their own as well,” Deihl said.

The students are in charge of collecting all the recyclable paper goods from each classroom in the building once a week. J.B. Green Team picks up the recyclables, and the school gets money for them.

Deihl said the students were in charge of the Holly Jolly Help for the Hopeful project as well.

“They were in charge of coming up with a name, and organizing who is doing what. They had to decide when to collect from the elementary school, and when to collect from the middle school. It has worked out really well. They are good kids.,” said Deihl.

The project was incentivized by a prize drawing that the TAG students came up with. Approximately 60 students donated, and there are around 30 candy prizes and Christmas items to choose from for the winners.

The students began collecting on Dec. 1, and gathered an estimated 145 items.

“The students brought their items to their classrooms, and the TAG students collected the items from each room during 9th period every day using baskets. They have their clipboards and they took down the names of all who donated from each class so they could be entered into the drawing,” said Deihl.

Bridgeport staff also donated items to the cause.