By Jadynne Brady
The Jag
This is the 32nd year that South has participated in Adopt-a-Family, helping 32 families, with a total of 153 people.
The Adopt-a-Family program has been one of the only programs that has been here since South opened in 1992. It has offered gifts and help to families in need during the holiday season.
To make sure that everything runs smoothly, the Student Senate starts preparing months in advance.
“The process starts in early October,” says English teacher and Student Senate sponsor Ashleigh Bertrand. “We usually get paperwork back by early November, and it takes quite a bit of time. [We have] one hundred 4th hours. And so, it’s a matter of figuring out, okay, we have 151 people, one hundred 4th hours. So how can we divide up these individuals to classes?”
Each family is assigned a code, and each person in that family has their own code as well. Each student senator is assigned a certain number of people from a family.
“Coach Lower and I have an Excel spreadsheet that lists everything,” says Bertrand, “So, when somebody does have an issue or a question about like, let’s say bedding. We don’t know what size bedding, then we can type in the family code. I can look up to see the contact. We reach out to that contact, reach out to the family, who then gets back to us. But it’s codes and Excel spreadsheets for days.”
Senior Palmer Taul, who is an officer for the Student Senate, is one of the many Student Senators who must stay organized in order to make sure that Adopt-a-Family is a success.
“The first thing we do is we make posters, and we give one to each class. Each class gets one person, and their job is to bring in money and stuff for them,” says Taul.
She says one of the main things the Student Senators must do is make sure that the gifts in each for each family member are relatively equal.
“Because can you imagine being with your sibling on Christmas and [seeing them] open up twenty gifts and you just had two? It’s just all kind of about balance and making sure that you’re thinking of all the little things,” says Taul.
With so many people, Senate tries to spend a little more than one hundred dollars per person.
“We try and spend about $125 per person, which makes us over like a $20,000 service project,” says Coach Kory Lower, who is the co-sponsor for Student Senate.
The Student-Senate is not partnered with any organization or program, though they do have businesses who adopt some families or donate, like Kennedy’s Jewelry and the owners of Scooters Coffee in Blue Springs.
“We just try and reach out to individuals that have kind of helped us in the past and see if they’re willing to help,” says Lower.
The most difficult part of this process is making sure that everyone is accounted for and that there is enough to go around.
“[The hardest part is] probably the anxiety in placing individuals to making sure, [and asking] do we have enough people to cover everybody we’ve taken on,” says Bertrand.
Lower also finds a struggle in making sure that everyone gets holiday gifts; however, he finds the most joy in it at the end.
“Sometimes you’ll have a family where two or three of the kids may be perfect, and then we kind of struggle to get some donations and things for like, the fourth kid,” says Lower. “So, trying to balance those out and make sure that everyone is taken care of is, I think, sometimes the hardest part. But [it’s] also the most rewarding, when it’s all said and done and seeing it all come together.”
When all of the gifts are wrapped, the Student Senate gives all of the gifts to one contactor who goes to all of the buildings, and then gives the gifts to the parents.
What really drives the program is the Student Senate, along with Bertrand.
“But Mrs. Bertrand is phenomenal too,” says Lower. “She does a great job behind the scenes of making sure that families are taken care of and that they’re all assigned and who needs to go where. We always joke, it’s like a big jigsaw puzzle, but she is the orchestrator of where everything is going.”
When everything is said and done, seeing all of the Student Senate’s hard work comes to fruition makes Taul feel great.
“Seeing all the black trash bags lined up with and then being delivered just makes me feel just amazing, and like getting to deliver them to the schools and seeing how appreciative their counselors are. [It’s] what I needed to know, that my hard work was helpful,” says Taul.
While there are some hurdles to jump, both Lower and Bertrand know that it is worth it.
“There are just times when somebody needs a little bit of extra help, and there are times when you just don’t know somebody else’s circumstances. And I think the more they just offer grace to somebody and have faith and trust that what you’re doing is just the right thing to do, [and] that’s going to benefit somebody else, that will come back to you in return,” says Bertrand.