Print
E-Mail
tool name
closePuyallup schools are pushing the holiday spirit
Neil Pierson/of The Herald
With many area residents continuing to feel the pinch of a poor economy, luxuries such as children’s Christmas gifts could be one of the first things trimmed from family budgets.
Students, teachers and administrators within the Puyallup School District recognized those potential problems and are taking action steps during the 2009 holiday season. First and foremost among those steps is a focus on the Puyallup Giftmakers program, which is in its 23rd year of collecting and donating toys, books, board games and other items for children within the school district’s boundaries.
Ridgecrest Elementary in South Hill is one of the schools that has taken an active role in Giftmakers. Principal Dana Harris credited Ridgecrest’s sixth-grade leadership team for constructing the school’s winter tree, where students and parents are free to make donations of all shapes and sizes.
Ridgecrest has seen a good response for the toy drive thus far and some of the donations figure to benefit Ridgecrest’s own students, Harris said. According to 2008 numbers from the state’s superintendent’s office, about one-quarter of the school’s population is eligible for free- and reduced-price lunches.
“We have families that we will recommend to the Giftmakers program,” Harris said. “In the past we’ve done an actual giving tree where we’ve collected gifts and given them to our own families. But when (the district) said there was a greater need throughout the community, we said we would help with that.”
Ridgecrest, which has an enrollment of about 450 students, began collecting gifts for its winter tree on Nov. 9 and will accept donations through Wednesday, Dec. 2.
In a similar vein, students at Emerald Ridge High School have taken a leadership role in the Giftmakers. The school’s Interact club, which is affiliated with Rotary International, does a number of service projects throughout the area and designed a gingerbread house donation box for Giftmakers to use at the South Hill Mall.
Emerald Ridge partnered with architecture, construction and engineering students at Rogers High School to build the donation box, which is inside the mall’s Christopher and Banks store. Donations will be accepted there and at a box inside the South Hill TOP Food and Drug store through Dec. 24.
A.J. Shaar, an Emerald Ridge senior involved with Interact, said the club has about 50 members and a few parent volunteers who meet twice a month. The club then talked with the school’s 57 staff advisers, who filtered word about Giftmakers to the 20-30 students each oversees.
“It’s really a group collaboration,” said senior Megan Kingston, another Interact student. “We get the whole school involved, not just Interact or a certain club.”
Emerald Ridge will be holding its own toy drive through Monday, Nov. 30. Shaar and Kingston said the school’s goal is 500 gifts and students are looking to get enough fabric or stocking donations to equate to 400 stockings.
“It seems like a lot but I think we can pull through,” Shaar said.
“There are so many people that are so determined and looking forward to participating in this every year,” Kingston added.
Giftmakers is looking for toys, books, board games for children ages 4 to 14, sporting equipment, infant and preschool toys and stockings and stocking stuffers for all age groups. Adult volunteers are needed for a two-day gift giveaway in December and anyone interested can call the school district office at 253-841-8703.