Just like Santa’s Workshop

Surrounded by stacks of colorfully wrapped gifts and hard at work

packaging more, students inside Candice Richards’ classroom at

TeWinkle Middle School in Costa Mesa worked like busy elves making

11th-hour Christmas preparations Monday morning.

“This is just like Santa’s Workshop,” Richards said, further

reinforcing the image.

Last year, Richards’ seventh-grade math class collected packages

for about 80 foster children at Olive Crest Home in Santa Ana. This

year, students from across the school volunteered to buy and wrap

gifts for needy and foster children.

They collected enough for 300 children.

“We wanted to spread the wealth,” school activities coordinator

Shelley Lang said. “It was so effective doing it in one class, [that]

we decided to take it school-wide.”

The gift drive falls right in the “caring” part of the school’s

Character Education program, Richards said.

She stumbled upon the Holiday Hope Chest idea on the Web site for

Kids Care Club, a children’s service organization.

She decided to take on the project in her class and chose to

donate the gifts to Olive Crest. Richards herself was a foster child

until the age of 14.

“[My students] know I was a foster child,” Richards said. “I know

how it feels to not have a mom at Christmas.”

Members of the campus’ Associated Student Body helped organize the

drive this year, going from class to class to drum up student

interest. With about 300 people participating, Richards said they are

also giving the packages to Orangewood Children’s Home and Costa

Mesa’s Heritage House, a drug-and alcohol-recovery program for women

and their children, some of whom are students at TeWinkle.

“Of all the families with us right now, not many celebrated

Christmas very well last year,” Heritage House Program Director Jan

Tyler said. “We try to make it nice for them with decorations and a

tree and gifts.”

Students prepared each package for a boy or a girl of any age

between newborn and 13 years old. With a mental list and a roughly

$15 limit, they went out and shopped for children they had never met,

hoping to brighten their holiday.

“My sister’s in fifth-grade,” said 13-year-old Megan Kunert, who

made a package for an elementary-school girl. “We like to play

dress-up so I knew a girl would like that. I got so many things like

little fake earrings and stuff.”

Once they had all the items -- everything from pacifiers to pens,

candy to calculators -- students covered shoeboxes with wrapping

paper and stuffed them with the goodies. On Monday, they put on the

finishing touches and got them ready to deliver.

“I feel really good,” 13-year-old Cassandra Menendez said. “It’s a

good project, giving to those who don’t have a lot of stuff like we

do.”

-- Story by Marisa O’Neil, photo by Kent Treptow