Today is the day that three families came to pick up their Christmas gifts that were donated by the generous people from our staff and some families from our school. The Student Council is so thankful for the kindness and generosity that people showed this holiday season.

For those of you wondering how we organize this drive, I have briefly explained our process below. As always, please feel free to leave any questions in the comment section and I can elaborate further if needed.

The middle/high school nurse is phenomenal and takes care of getting requests and choosing families. She contacts local churches and service organizations and ensures that two groups are not giving to the same family. She will also give family names to outside groups who wish to support a family at Christmas. She takes the remaining families and we divide them up between the elementary and the middle/high schools.

I organize the Adopt-A-Family for the elementary school. Each family is contacted and if the family accepts the donation, then we send this packet to each family. I took out my school name and return information so that you may fill in your own information if you would like to use this in the future.

When all of the wish lists are returned, I create “pull slip” sheets that include all of the wishes. On one side the item is listed and there is a spot for the gift giver to write their name. Gift givers also have the option to remain anonymous. The other side has the gift listed with a little reminder for when the gift is due. The donor takes this slip to help them remember what to purchase and to tape onto the wrapped gift. We posted these on a bulletin board outside of the main office. You can see my pull slips here to help you get an idea of how to make your own

As people bring in their wrapped gifts, the Student Council organizes them into piles for each family and keeps track of which gifts have been brought in and what is still needed. After, I take any cash donations and go out and purchase any gifts that we are missing. I was worried this year about getting enough donations, but everything ended up working out. The secretary called my classroom one morning and told me that there was an envelope sent in the mail without a return address and $200 in cash with a note saying, “Please use this money for adopt-a-family.” It was so incredible and I had to hold back tears so that I could return to teaching. The generosity of people is so inspiring.

The students then made cards for each family and we wrote out labels for the presents. Some parents chose to have us write “To ______, From Santa” and others chose for us to leave the pull slips on the packages so that they could address the packages in their own handwriting.

The parents came to pick up the presents and we discretely packed the presents into the families’ cars. All three of the families were so happy and I felt very blessed to know that I am part of such a caring community.