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
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