The students say it was a lot of work, but certainly worth it.
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Last week five middle school students raised money, which they then used to buy Christmas gifts for Page’s veterans.
The idea was that of seventh grader, Jacob Clay. His original plan was to buy the items for one of the Christmas Angels from one of the several Angel Trees in town. He took that idea to Mr. Garry Godbehere, Dean of Students at Page Middle School. Mr. Godbehere liked the idea, but encouraged Jacob to do one better, and he came back with the idea to buy Christmas presents for Page’s veterans.
Having taken on a much larger challenge Clay recruited four of his friend to assist him: Owen Boyd, Talia Barton, Tatyana Dickson and Nia Valenzueo.
The five students are members of the middle school’s Safety Patrol, and they were more than happy help.
Tatyana Dickson said she was surprised by the amount of work involved to make it all come together.
“It was a lot of work,” she said. “I thought it would be easier. It made me feel happy to help out our vets.”
The kids raised $282, which they did by selling cookies during lunch for three days. They started with cookies baked by their moms and $20 dollars of Safeway cookies. After raising the money the five students took their earnings to Page’s Dollar Tree, where they purchased items they included in gift baskets for Page’s veterans. Items such as cologne, shaving cream, puzzles, mugs, gloves hats and treats.
To distribute the gifts to the veterans they recruited the help of Travis Napolitan, who works with veterans through his affiliation with Page’s Elks Lodge.
For Jacob Clay, watching the project develop and grow from idea conception to project completion was an eye-opening, educational experience.
“I just wanted our vets to have a Merry Christmas,” he said. “Though it was a lot of work, it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be.”
Jacob’s mother, who through the course of the project helped steer the students through the intricacies of the adult world, got to witness first-hand the effort and love the kids put into this endeavor.
“I’m so proud of them,” she said. “They worked so hard to give back to people who themselves have given us, and our country, so much.”
