JOYCE – Crescent students got together to give back during the holidays.
The Crescent School District held a canned food drive collecting enough food for 18 family-sized baskets of food and presents for children in Joyce who are in need.
The fifth-grade class in Tim Rooney’s room adopted a family of three and the 16 kids in the class collected more than 30 gifts for the family.
This is the second year that Rooney’s class has adopted a family through the Salvation Army.
Families in need can go to the Salvation Army for help and community members, in turn, can “adopt” a family or child by purchasing gifts on their wish lists.
The Salvation Army then distributes the gifts to the adopted families, protecting their privacy by keeping identities private.
“It is a great thing for them to do,” he said.
“A project like this teaches them to give back and not just focus on the ‘getting’ of Christmas, but also the ‘giving’ of Christmas.”
The class didn’t get all the details about the family, to protect its privacy, but students do know that it is a single mother with two young children.
“We had a nice long talk about what the season means,” Rooney said.
“It has worked out really well.
“This way they can help someone else out in having a good Christmas.
“The kids learned what the holiday is all about and that it isn’t all about them.”
Parents sent presents with their children to the school and Rooney pitched in some of his own money to help with bigger items.
“This is the second time I’ve done this with my classes and both of them really got into it,” Rooney said.
“It is nice to see them get as excited about it as I am.”
Crescent students and community members also adopted area children in need through the Angel Tree placed up at the school. That resulted in at least 18 families receiving help, David Bingham, a Crescent High School teacher, said.
The Angel Tree has been set up at the school for at least 15 years, Bingham said.
“This is our way to help make sure that Crescent School kids have something for the holidays,” he said.
Along with the gifts collected from the Angel Tree – in which anyone in the school or community could select an “angel” from the tree which gave the age, gender and wish list of a child and purchase gifts for him or her – the school held a food drive to give food baskets to the families in need.
To make it more fun, the school made a competition among the classes.
The three winning classes – kindergartners, fourth grade and seniors – will have an ice cream party in January sponsored by the Associated Student Body, Bingham said.
“The school has always been sort of a clearing house for these community activities,” Bingham said.
All of the families who were helped by the food drive – which brought in more than 1,000 items – were Joyce area residents.
“It is a chance for the kids to learn about giving back to the community,” Bingham said.
The ASB organized all of the gifts and wrapped up those that were donated without wrapping, and put together the food gift baskets.
