LAKEPORT — Clear Lake High School students and staff coordinate two canned food drives, collect coats and coins and give gifts to disadvantaged students with Christmas for Kids all in November and December.
Christmas for Kids will support almost 200 students and their families this year, vice principal Bob Mayer said.
“Clear Lake High School has learned the gift of giving,” Mayer said.
Senior Carley Jones leads Christmas for Kids with junior Erik Hagberg who will take over next year.
“It”s eye-opening,” Jones said. “I didn”t realize so many people were hurting like that.”
Both Jones and Hagberg said volunteering with the program makes them feel fortunate for what they have.
“When you hear about the economic times in the news it seems like a far away problem,” Jones said.
Jones now sees the poverty and unemployment problems in Lake County, she said.
Christmas for Kids started 12 years ago to give gifts to needy Lakeport Unified School District students and their families. Teachers get the names of students and give the information to Mayer. Donors then buy gifts, coats or clothes for the students. Mayer calls elementary and middle school students” families to pick up the gifts. High school students pick up the gifts themselves.
“We keep it as low key as possible,” Mayer said.
Mayer said recipients get “pretty emotional” when they get the gifts.
Students donated more than 2,000 cans of food to the Food Cupboard in November and about 1,500 more this month. The Interact Club and the California Scholarship Federation organize the food drives. Staff and students also collect new and used coats, which they distributed around Lake County, Mayer said. The high school students raised $270 in a coin drive to buy gifts for children.
Mayer thinks Christmas for Kids also helps the volunteer students with organization, public speaking and other lifelong skills, he said.
Mayer and the students thanked teachers, staff, the school district, Lakeport Rotary and the Lakeport Kiwanis Club for their support of Christmas for Kids and the other fundraisers.
“I had a lot of fun knowing that I helped a family that normally has nothing,” Jones said.
Contact Katy Sweeny at ksweeny@record-bee.com or call her directly at 263-5636, ext. 37.
