A season for giving

ST. IGNATIUS — 'Tis the season for giving, and some Mission students gave it their all this holiday season.

Dogs with Wings students earned their halos last week as they fought the shopping crowd to buy gifts for other children in need with the money they'd earned from selling crafts they made this year.

The students used their own time to sell those crafts to the community during local basketball games, at the local grocery store and at the school. Each time they collected enough money from the sales, they would venture over to the local bank to take a few tags from the Share the Spirit tree, and a child's Christmas wish list was on each tag.

"This year we raised $803.81 and we did eight tags," teacher and coordinator Valerie Umphrey said. "We originally decided on 50 dollars per tag but because prices are higher this year we decided to go with about $75 each instead."

For the past few years, the program, which incorporates the use of basic math fundamentals with a lesson in compassion, has been a great success, and due to that success, a small amount of the funds raised from this year's program is being set aside to use as start-up costs for next year's program.

"We have been doing this for a few years now and we decided that it was time to establish an activity fund so that we can have something in the bank for next year for start up costs," Umphrey said. "This year all the funds came from donations."

With the tags and the allotted funds, the students got on a bus and set out on a shopping trip to buy the gifts to fill the wish lists of those children they'd selected from the tree.

"For one, we got the crib first. We needed to get that first. And next, we've got a 1-year-old so we went to the toy section to try and get some educational toys. We got down to $2.40 so we got some Hot Wheels cars and a ball and that put us exactly on. We had $182 to start," student Jerry Ranel said.

"Anton [Luety] here," Ranel said patting his buddy on the back. "He demanded that tag. He wanted to help someone else out that needed a crib."

And Mrs. Umphrey wasn't sure how they were going to afford to get that crib but she let the boys go ahead and choose that tag anyway.

"People found out that there was a request for a crib and they donated money specifically for it. So we put more money towards that tag," she said.

Seniors David Barnett and Dougles Schimmel helped coordinate the project.

"We are managing this fundraiser for our senior project. One of the things that we had to do was to arrange the sell dates with companies for the craft fair," Barnett said.

Before graduating, Mission seniors are required to choose a project that they work on throughout the year, and then, submit a report on that project to supervising teachers.

"It seemed like the thing to do, helping to give Christmas to someone who wouldn't otherwise have one. That is why we chose this project to help with," Schimmel said.

Sticking with a budget seemed to be the biggest challenge for the students as they meandered through the isles trying to make their selections. Camrine Irvine and Yuriah Steele chose to shop for an older child.

"Older kids are harder to shop for. It is easier to shop for babies," they said. "We just hope he likes what we got him."

While one lucky child would have his wishes filled, the number 13 kept coming up while the two shopped.

"The boys bought 13 items, this is the 13th day and they missed it by 13 cents. What are the odds of that," helper Katie Frazinni said

Daron Whitedirt shopped for a two-year-old child, which wasn't as difficult due to the request for diapers.

"It's hard trying to stay with an exact set amount. It's fun but frustrating," Whitedirt said. "We got some clothes, a ball, slippers and the requested diapers."

An adult volunteer accompanied each group of two to three students and those volunteers helped keep kids within their budget and got them back on the bus at the end of the day.

"The volunteers were Katie Frazinni, Alan Pule, Kimimi Ashley, Dorothy vonHoltum. Carol Harbin, Susan Weaselhead and Marleen Ochs. Some of the volunteers work at the school and others just wanted to help," Umphrey said. "And they are very appreciated."