Red Sock Generosity

I just want to take a minute to brag on my school. When we opened five years ago, we turned the names of a few kids in for Christmas gifts from a local charity. We were glad to do that, but we began to think that maybe we could do something more. A colleague told me about her gift closet that she keeps at her house year round. Basically, as she is out and about doing normal holiday, birthday, or bargain shopping, she picks up extra items that are such great deals it’s silly not to buy them. She gets things that would be appropriate for colleagues, friends, and her kid’s friends. Then when a gift item is needed, she can just pull something from her gift closet. It ends up saving her time and money in the long run. I thought that was ingenious and began a gift closet of my own for students at school. Several people got on that band wagon, and we started adding to the gifts of our needy kids.

We knew that the kids we were helping only represented a portion of the needy kids in our school. So, the other counselor at my school streamlined our information gathering process in an effort to serve even more of our kids and their families. She also pitched the idea for a fund that would augment our gift closets. Because our mascot is the Gladiator, she called it the Gladiangel fund. We held $1 hat days, in order to get it going.

Needless to say, this project has grown a little every year. After the first couple of years, we began adding an outfit and a gift item for all of the kids whose names we continued to turn in to the local Christmas charity; this made a total of three gifts that they would receive. Additionally, the ones that came from us were only labeled with the child’s name. That way, it could be from Santa or the parents.

The number of families asking for help continued to grow, so we began asking teachers or teams of teachers to take on families. Their response was overwhelming. Not only did some of our teachers take families, they started asking for help from their Sunday school classes, small groups, and generous family members. (It is, of course, all kept anonymous - both the givers and receivers.)

This year we served more families than ever, over 35. That translates to approximately 120 kids, and probably 5-10 thousand dollars. During the week that parents picked up gifts, I was met with tears and called Jesus, Santa, an angel, and told “God bless you” countless times. One mother came with a tube connected to her body because she had a hysterectomy that went poorly last month; she was still waiting to be stitched up. Another mother came from the hospital on her way home from having a baby. Another mother came from work, not knowing which relatives were going to let them stay the night that day. Another family continues to heat their home with a home made fireplace in an oil drum with makeshift venting out a window.

Though we served more than ever this year, I know that it still only represents a fraction of the need. I was completely humbled to look into the eyes of that need and realize how extravagantly rich I am in comparison.

May God bless all of those families in need as well as all of those who showed red sock generosity to help them.