Following is a list of Christmas giving projects local schools organized. The information was submitted by school personnel.
Buckeye Central Local School District
The high school student council collected items to package and send to soldiers serving overseas. It also has a competition with Wynford to see which school can collect the most pounds of food for local needy families. The winner is to be announced at the girls basketball game at Wynford during Christmas break. There is a traveling trophy that goes to the winner.
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St. Wendelin Elementary Leadership sponsored a hat and mitten tree in the school lobby. Faculty, staff, students, families and visitors were encouraged to bring in mittens, hats and gloves for area families.
Carey Exempted Village School District
The elementary student council had a coat drive before the third-, fourth- and fifth-grade music program. Students built a box city outside the school. They arrived at the school in shorts, T-shirts and sandals and kept warm only with the donated items. Altogether, they received 31 coats, 14 pairs of gloves, 22 hats, one pair of winter pants, three blankets and three scarves. All items were to be donated to the Memorial United Methodist Church food and clothing drive.
Hopewell-Loudon Local School District
Fact Box
Information was supplied by the respective schools and does not necessarily reflect all charity-driven activities area students participated in this year.
Staff and students in grades 7-12 had a canned food drive to benefit The Salvation Army, donated coats to The Salvation Army and sent Christmas cards to soldiers serving abroad.
New Riegel Local School District
The elementary student council visited Autumnwood Care Center, St. Francis Home and Elmwood Assisted Living at The Shawhan and delivered homemade cookies, ornaments and cards. They also sang to residents.
During the first two weeks of November, first-graders collected toys and other items for the sharing kitchen's Christmas party. They also made Christmas cards to send to troops in Afghanistan. Dec. 1, first-graders and adults from the school and community decorated gingerbread houses to be displayed in the school and community. The gingerbread houses were judged by fourth-graders.
St. Peter School, Upper Sandusky
The kindergarten class collected pajamas as part of "The Great Bedtime Story Pajama Drive," sponsored by Scholastic Book Club. The school donated 73 pairs of pajamas to local children in group homes, shelters, foster care and orphanages. For every pair of pajamas collected, Scholastic matched it with a donated book.
St. Wendelin Catholic Schools
The school again was to sponsor the Caring for Kids project, which involves adopting 10 Fostoria-area families through Fostoria Bureau of Concern and creating a Christmas they might not have had without help. This year, combining programs from the elementary grades with the high school classes, all students were asked to join in the effort to prepare a holiday for the adopted families, providing food baskets, cleaning supplies, toiletry items and gifts for the children. All classes were asked to bring in specific items for the Christmas baskets.
A giving tree, located in the school lobby, was adorned with paper ornaments. Each paper ornament lists specific toys a child has asked for for Christmas. Faculty, staff, parents and students were encouraged to take an ornament and purchase a gift for a child.
National Honor Society students collected monetary donations after Masses at St. Wendelin Catholic Church. Monetary donations are used to purchase potatoes and ham and to supplement each of the Christmas baskets with needed items.
In conjunction with the Caring for Kids project, St. Wendelin Elementary Leadership sponsored a hat and mitten tree in the school lobby. Faculty, staff, students, families and visitors were encouraged to bring in mittens, hats and gloves for area families.
The school also had a coat collection.
Sentinel Career
and Technology Center
Public safety students rang the bell for The Salvation Army at Heritage IGA in Tiffin. The junior medical technology class visited St. Francis Home residents as part of their pen pal program. The residents and students made Christmas ornaments and listened to music.
Tiffin City Schools
The district's staff, administration and board of education donated more than $3,000 to purchase food to be distributed by The Salvation Army.
With the money, the district was able to donate 121 hams and 110 turkeys.
Columbian High School's advanced art class collected 159 toys for the Tiffin firefighters' toy drive. A Career Based Intervention English class helped Santa Claus answer letters from first-graders at Croghan Elementary School.
Art classes at Krout and Lincoln elementary schools created Christmas cards for the United Way's "Support Our Troops" project. Students drew several hundred cards with personal messages to be shipped in
Christmas boxes for Seneca County soldiers.
Noble Elementary School students donated canned food items for The Salvation Army holiday food drive. The staff collected money to donate to the Seneca County Department of Job and Family Services for its children's Christmas fund.
Every year, Washington Elementary School has donated food items to The Salvation Army at Christmastime.
This year, students and staff were challenged to see which group would donate more nonperishable items.
At the end of the collection, a total of 311 items were collected, with 157 items donated by students, 71 items by staff and 83 that weren't claimed by either students or staff.
Upper Sandusky Exempted Village School District
The middle school's student council planned to buy presents for underprivileged children, and the cheerleaders were to buy presents from the Angel Tree project.
