Blane Gold’s A.P. Government students will get an A-plus this season from Santa.
The 25 Redbank Valley High School students traveled to the Walmart in Clarion on Wednesday to go on a shopping spree, not for themselves, but for people they don’t even know.
“This is my A.P. Government class civic involvement project,” said Gold, a Franklin High School graduate. “This started three years ago. We had a family in our school district who had cancer, and we just wanted to take the burden off of mom and take care of Christmas for her.”
“Last year, we took nominations and we got multiple families,” said Gold. “This year, we had three families nominated with nine kids. What is really neat is that the kids raised the money on their own. They didn’t organize any fundraisers. They just went out to the junior and senior class and asked for $10 or $20 donations. They came up with $2,000 in five days.”
Gold said the money raised enabled the class to spend about $200 on each child, and “when you are talking about 5-, 6- and 7-year-old kids, that’s a lot of stuff that we can buy for each one.”
“The families that were nominated can’t afford it or are just having a hard time. We are trying to make their Christmas better,” said Redbank student Hope Spence. “It really impacts my life to see that there are people out there who need help and knowing I am one of those people helping. It makes me feel really good.
Gold said a retired teacher who dresses up as Santa Claus came to the school on Friday and the students dressed as elves.
“As each one of the kids told Santa what they wanted, our elves wrote down the gift ideas. This way, it will look like all of the gifts are coming from Santa,” said Gold.
“We got to meet the kids when Santa came to the school,” said student Shylie Shreckengost. “I loved that we got to meet them. That helped us buy gifts for them because we got to see their personalities.”
Gold said the class chose “to keep it magical for the families so they can either pick up the gifts or we can deliver them whenever the children are home.”
There was also a valuable life lesson for the students.
“I think this is really a wonderful project,” said senior Colin Sheffer. “I think this is a great way for a lot of the students to experience the real world so they can understand what some families go through at this time of year.
“A lot of us have never had to go through financial hardship, so it is very eye-opening for a lot of us. It is heart-warming to be able to help these kids out. Just seeing their delight in meeting Santa was worth it.”
“The kids have really taken ownership of it,” he said. “When we talked about it, I told them you see celebrities do things around Christmastime, like purchasing gifts. For 16- and 17-year-old kids, $2,000 is a lot of money. It is really neat to see them get excited to purchase gifts for other people.”
“We are glad to be able to this,” said senior Ian Taylor. “Our class really stepped up to the plate and raised a lot of money for this. It makes you feel good to be able to help other people. I know the magic of Christmas, and I am glad to share that with other kids.”
Gold also shares the experience with others.
“In addition to our class, we hade a few videographers from the broadcast class. Mr. Gold makes a video of the highlights and he posts it on his YouTube account,” said student Peyton Kirkpatrick. “The kids were super excited and that is all that matters.
“Truly, it is an awesome opportunity. We are thankful the superintendent and the school district partnered with us this year and supported us. We can’t wait to deliver the gifts.”
Gold thanked the school district for supplying a bus this year. In the past private vehicles were used, but this year 25 students were involved.
“Our new superintendent, Dr. John Mastillo, said this was a school event and he got us a bus,” Gold said.