Christmas Giving
The holidays are a time for giving, and Wylie students are doing their part to help the less fortunate this holiday season.
Every Wylie campus usually has some sort of collection drive during the holidays to teach children the value of giving. By far the biggest and most special of these efforts is Wylie High School’s Adopt-A-Child program.
Sponsored by the Wylie High School Student Council, Adopt-A-Child is a program in which high school classes adopt younger, less fortunate children, buy them presents and then throw a big party where the younger children get to open those presents.
“Adopt-A-Child is the best day ever,” said Student Council President Josiah Light. “It is so fun. You get to see the kids having fun and get to be with your friends while helping these kids. It’s pretty cool that the school does this.”
The younger campuses participate by providing the Student Council with the names of low-income children who are likely to not have much at Christmas. The parents of those children provide a wish list and each child is assigned to a pair of homeroom classes at the High School.
Each high school student is asked to bring $5 or $10, and the Student Council also raises money by selling Adopt-A-Child T-shirts. After two or three weeks of raising money, the students head to Wal-Mart to shop for the child. Then, on Dec. 11, the children will be brought from their campuses to the high school, where they enjoy a party.
The students get to open their presents, enjoy refreshments and even see Santa. The halls of the high school are filled with kids riding bikes and skate boards and racing remote control cars.
“It’s awesome,” Josiah said. “It’s a party for the kids. That feeling is so awesome because they are so happy. You can see how happy that they are, and it makes you happy to know that you had a part in that.”
In addition to sponsoring Adopt-A-Child, the High School Student Council also raised food for needy families during Thanksgiving. The Student Council also goes to help feed the homeless at Love and Care Ministries during the holidays.
“That’s a really cool thing to,” Josiah said. “We usually get real good participation.”
The High School is not the only campus to help others during the holidays.
At the Early Childhood Center, families can bring new, unwrapped toys for Toys For Tots. The Elementary will be collecting cash and canned goods for the 30th Annual Share Your Christmas Food Drive benefitting the Food Bank of West Central Texas.
The Intermediate collects new, unwrapped toys or the Toys For Tots program, plus they do a food drive to help the Food Bank of West Central Texas. The class that collects the most food gets to have breakfast at Cracker Barrel.
At the Junior High, the FCA huddle raised money for Mission Thanksgiving by creating a competition between the 7th grade girls, 7th grade boys, 8th grade girls, and 8th grade boys. Students brought donations of canned food, money, blankets, coats and even unopened hygiene items like soap and toothpaste.
Points were awarded for each item donated, and a scoreboard was kept in the hallway for students to keep up with the competition progress. All donations went to Love and Care Ministries, a local organization that cares for the needs of the homeless and needy in our community.
The Junior High Student Council adopts about 35 children who are in the Child Protective Services system and helps make their Christmas a little brighter.
The Junior High band raised money for the Food Bank of West Central Texas during Thanksgiving, and at Christmas, they will have their annual Christmas Angel project where they will be collecting blankets and bath baskets for a local nursing home.
The band also will be doing a band social/fundraiser to help Victor and Irma Salinas. Irma has leukemia, and she is the wife of Victor, who is a custodian at the JH.