In the spirit of holiday giving, many schools in Orange County held donation drives for food and toys to help students in need feel included during the break in December.
In Garden Grove, Pacifica High School “adopted” approximately 300 kindergarteners for the campus’ annual Adopt-A-Child event where the older and younger students were paired up to enjoy a morning of gift giving and fun activities.
A few cities away in Huntington Beach, second graders from Dr. Ralph E. Hawes Elementary School made fleece blankets for teens residing in Waymakers Youth Shelter, a program dedicated to serving residents with mental health needs.
Teachers in the county also found ways to make the holidays special for their students. Transitional kindergarten teacher Alyssa Moreno from Orangethorpe Elementary turned to her Instagram followers and asked them to help her give the gift of literacy by purchasing books from her wishlist.
“I was in shock. So many people who I haven’t talked to for years donated,” Moreno said. “It was so nice to see how many people donated.”
In total, she received 37 new books which covered each student and included a few spare books for the classroom.
The OCDE Newsroom has compiled a collection of social media posts depicting acts of kindness that schools, districts and students shared with their communities this month.
Don’t forget to log your kind acts on the kindness1billion.org website, or download our free app for iOS and Android devices. For more on kindness, check out these stories we’ve shared on the OCDE Newsroom, including the “Exploring Kindness” episode of The Deeper Learning Podcast, hosted by Orange County Superintendent Dr. Al Mijares.