Santa’s Little Helpers
Christmas 2012
This holiday season, we want to shine some light on the many people doing good in the community. CRI’s Aaron Riggs caught up with students at Oskaloosa High School to find out how they’re making sure a child’s Christmas wish doesn’t go unanswered. He has this week’s Caring Community report.
“Lego type car, batman, superheros”.
The donations have poured in and the peer helpers at the oskaloosa senior high are eager to put a smile on the face of a child in need.
“We have picked out some kids from the elementary school that are low income family and are in need of Christmas presents cause their parents can’t afford them and we all have different kids that we have to get our presents for”, says student Rachel Farner.
“I had a fifth grade girl and she loves barbies and dolls and all that kind of stuff but I also picked a few blankets for her cause I thought that was like really touching so i’m gonna make sure she gets that”, says student Allie Christenson.
“And then we would later wrap this present and give it to the children when we deliver it to the elementary school”, says student Drew Richmond.
All this activity is apart of a program that’s been going on for about 25 years–run by student peer helpers and advised by teacher Scottie Moore.
“And it’s apart of unit we call Teens Helping Others and it’s their job to make sure a child’s going to have a wrapped gift for Christmas”, says teacher Scottie Moore.
The students will be delivering gifts to about eighty kids a week before Christmas, but it’s not all about toys. A lot of the packages will fill important needs such as clothes, toiletries, and shoes.
“and another boy said ‘my boy needs tennis shoes’ and I said ‘well does he really need them’ and he says ‘yeah the soles are coming off his tennis shoes’ and I was like ‘we’ll get them'”, says Moore.
All this is made possible by involvement from the community. With financial donations from former students, local clubs and organization– to physical donations of toys by local business.
“I’ll bet we, probably serious have a hundred different individuals or groups totally that donate to this group”, says Moore.
But it’s not enough, in fact more donations are needed to fill these bins of clothing.
“Gently used children clothes is wonderful, and that would be from preschool up through fifth grade”, says Moore.
“The boxes arn’t very full yet so we need a lot of donations, cause usually they get to about up here. And then each kid will come in and pick out clothes for their kid what they think will fit their children that they have”, says Christenson.
“We have a nice long list if anyone would like to help out they’d be welcome to assist us in anyway they’d like to”, says Moore.
Moore says shes hopes the program teaches students to realize that through the act of giving, that they receive just as much as they give.
“When I told her we were gonna get her presents for Christmas her eyes lit up and she was like ‘oh really’ so it just makes me… I just want to make a difference like, I’ve always wanted to make a difference and to see that I can make an impact on a little kids life, it’s life changing for me not just for them”, says student Whitney Newman.
If you’d like to make a tax deductible donation to the peer helpers, you can contact the high school and ask for Scottie Moore, or you can reach Scottie on her cellphone.
