Their rewards for their hard work indicate their passion, kindness, and good nature.
The seven caring Bridgewater-Raritan High School students who make up the Executive Board of the highly popular and productive Operation Elementary shared why they and their fellow club members volunteer their time and service.
The club was founded in 2022 at Bridgewater-Raritan High School as Operation JFK, when a student at the time, Suraj Shah, who graduated in 2025 and now attends Yale University, created a service to give back to his former school, John F. Kennedy Primary School.
His project was focused on bringing joy to younger children at school events and building a bridge between local youth and older high school mentors.
According to Michele Kussmaul, the club’s dedicated Advisor, “The idea took off so fast that we expanded to all Bridgewater-Raritan elementary schools and officially renamed the group as Operation Elementary.”
“Today, our reach extends far beyond elementary campuses–we are regularly asked to support intermediate, middle school and high school and town-wide events.”
The club has expanded to handle these numerous tasks and assignments—Operation Elementary today boasts a total of 250 members at Bridgewater-Raritan High School.
These dedicated troops are often requested by the schools in the district to work events, especially PTO activities, where the students handle various chores and lend a helping hand.
“As a mom of high schoolers and a former PTO volunteer, I know exactly how exhausting event days can be for parents,” revealed Ms. Kussmaul, a Health and Physical Education Teacher at Bridgewater-Raritan High School. “Operation Elementary steps in to handle the chaos, running activities so that parents can actually slow down and make memories with their kids while socializing with other community members.”
Ms. Kussmaul has done an admirable job in getting the word out about her hard-working crew.
She has attended PTO and Council of School Associations meetings to explain the process. The organization at a school will visit the Operation Elementary (OE) website and log a request for student workers through the OE Help Form. The organization will explain the activity and the number of students required to help.
Ms. Kussmaul then hands off the assignment to her seven Executive Board members, who then recruit a crew to volunteer their services.
Each Operation Elementary student worker proudly wears their club’s bright red shirt with the BR logo.
A reflection of the tireless and passionate Ms. Kussmaul is embodied by the Executive Board members Sophia Kelleher, Aadarsh Arvind, Nitya Jain, Olivia Greenberg, Devn Patel, Shyam Shah and Jamie McGeechan.
These devoted leaders offered their reasons for being involved and why this club has been so well received throughout the school district.
“It is a great way to give back to the community,” Nitya said. “It is great to interact with the kids.”
“It helps build leadership skills and we help make life easier for parents,” Oliva shared.
“We love to see the kids be so happy and we like helping with their games,” Aadarsh added.
“I like when I can volunteer at my old school and see what the kids are like there,” Shyam said.
Devin agreed with his buddy Shyam.
“It is a great way to relive our childhood experiences,” he confirmed.
“It is a nice feeling helping out kids and giving back,” Jamie said.
The school community had their say, too.
The Co-Presidents of the PTO at the John F. Kennedy Primary School, Alicia Wiecenski and Allison Abdelmalek, appreciated the help provided by Operation Elementary during their Monster Mash Halloween activity on Thursday, October 29.
“ The volunteers were helpful and enthusiastic. We greatly appreciate their assistance. It is hard to get parent volunteers for events like these, and Operation Elementary helps make the evening a success,” said Ms. Wiecenski and Ms. Abdelmalek.
They have been busy already this school year.
“After helping with over 50 events last year, we are already at 17 events (as of the end of October), deep into this school year and loving every minute,” Ms. Kussmaul reported.
Somewhere at Yale University, Suraj Shah is smiling.