Modesto Girl Scouts collecting pajamas for foster and homeless kids

“If you were a child who didn’t have pajamas or a book, how uncomfortable would it be to have to sleep in your clothes and be cold and maybe get sick? How sad would it be?”

Fourth-grader Isabella Cannistraci posed that question in explaining why she and her fellow Girl Scouts are having a drive to collect kids pj’s and books as part of the nationwide Pajama Program’s “One Million Good Nights” campaign.

Troop 3317 learned of the two-year campaign last year and took part as a community service project, distributing fliers in neighborhoods and their school. Most of the 13 girls go to Our Lady of Fatima Elementary School.

“This year, we tried to get the whole community involved,” said troop leader Jennifer Sanguinetti. The girls solicited book and pajama donations from friends, neighbors, classmates, relatives and local Boy Scouts. Girl Scout Juliana Nunez made a presentation to her gymnastics group.

“At school, we have a box that has a sign on it that we’re collecting pajamas and books,” Scout Natalie Trujillo said. Students have been encouraged to bring donations to Monday-morning school assemblies.

Troop members shared their goal – to collect 1,000 sets of pajamas for children from birth to age 18 and 1,000 books – at a meeting of leaders of other Girl Scout troops and had 65 leaders sign up to get more information. Leaders of one Girl Scout service unit donated $200, which purchased 30 sets of pj’s, Sanguinetti said.

The One Million Good Nights initiative, which ends Dec. 31, has the goal of collecting 1 million new pajamas and 1 million books, plus the resources needed to get them into the hands of the young children and teens in need. But what the troop collects will go to foster and homeless children living in Stanislaus County, said Sanguinetti’s daughter, Madison.

There are more than 700 children in the Stanislaus County foster care system alone and many more living in shelters who never have owned a new pair of pajamas or had a new book to call their own, Jennifer Sanguinetti said.

The girls are well on their way to their goal, with 250 sets of pajamas already in hand. But the big day is Saturday, when the troop will hold a collection event from noon to 3 p.m. in the rear parking lot of Our Lady of Fatima Parish’s church and school, 505 W. Granger Ave.

There, the girls will learn whether all the work they’ve done spreading the word has paid off.

“I feel really good. I think we’re going to get them all,” Scout Elise Gary said.

People who’d like to donate don’t have to wait until Saturday. Books and pj’s or monetary donations can be taken to the school office by Friday. The books and pajamas should be new, Madison Sanguinetti said.

“The money doesn’t have to be new,” she added.

Jennifer Sanguinetti added that donations should be unwrapped, because later Saturday the girls will have a sorting party at which they’ll take off price tags and sort the pj’s by size and maybe by gender.

Any donation is welcome, Scout Rebecca Willemse said: a book, a set of pajamas, one of each, or even more.

“You can donate as much pajamas as you want,” she said.

To learn more, email Jennifer Sanguinetti at jrsanguinetti@msn.com. For more on the nonprofit Pajama Program, contact Central Valley Chapter representative Zenia Zuniga at zenia@pajamaprogram.org or 209-568-6347.

This story was originally published December 1, 2015 at 6:20 PM.