Spreading the holiday spirit
NISD Communications Department
December 15, 2006
About 100 children at Cable, Mary Hull, Meadow Village, Passmore and Westwood Terrace elementary schools got much more than a pair of shoes and few toys during the annual holiday shopping spree sponsored by Jay High School.
They got the gift of Christmas.
Every year since Jay High School opened in 1967, students and staff have joined together to raise money to take underprivileged children shopping for a new pair of shoes for Christmas. The longtime event – one of the oldest school-wide holiday charity traditions in San Antonio – today includes a trip to Payless Shoe Source and to Big Lots Discount Store for toys.
Each child gets $25 for shoes, $25 for toys and a Jay High School student to serve as a personal shopper. It doesn’t get any better than that for Gabby Mendez, a fourth grader at Cable Elementary.
“This is the best day of my life,” she said as she modeled her new shoes at Payless. Excitement quickly spread through the store as children filled the aisles of the shoe store earlier this month.
“These are awesome!” exclaimed Rebecca Chavez, a fourth grader at Passmore Elementary, as she tried on a pair Bratz Diamondz sneakers.
“These have lightening!” said her younger brother, Juan, after spotting a pair of Disney Cars sneakers.
Each year, students, staff and school organizations at Jay raise $5,000 to fund the shopping spree, and the Family Consumer Science Department provides lunch. The children also got a visit from Santa and his elves during lunch.
“For a lot of the children, this is it for Christmas,” said Calvin Buchholtz, a Jay science teacher and Student Council sponsor who has organized the event for the past 33 years.
And the high school students who help the children shop get a less tangible but very meaningful reward by spreading the holiday spirit to kids in need.
The best part of the day, said Jay senior Derrick Thomas, was seeing the smiles on the faces of the children.“This is just a great experience,” he said while waiting in line in Big Lots to help two students buy remote control cars. “I’ve never done anything like this before. I didn’t think I was going to have this much fun.”
Helping the young children buy Christmas gifts was especially meaningful for Jay freshman Azalia Martinez. Years ago, she was a Cable elementary student who was taken on a shopping spree by a Jay high school student.
“Mom had said we wouldn’t get anything for Christmas that year,” she said. “It was a really big deal.”
To switch roles “feels good,” she said. “I don’t know if they’re going through the same things I was going through, but at least they’re getting something for Christmas.”
RSS 2.0 NISD News Feed
View News Archives
Printer Friendly