Santa receives help from Frankfort students

Santa’s workload was a little lighter once again this year, thanks to sixth through eight grade students and staff at Hickory Creek Middle School. Their hard work, along with generous donations from District 157-C families, granted the wishes of truly needy children. Pre-kindergarten through fourth grade children from the Cesar E. Chavez Multicultural Academic Center in Chicago were the recipients of Hickory Creek’s efforts.

This program answers letters that needy children have written to Santa and works to grant the children’s wishes, with a price limit set for each gift. Hickory Creek students participate annually in conjunction with District 157-C’s Character Counts character education program. Many Frankfort families overwhelmingly respond to the call, granting the wishes of students who write letters to Santa.

Hickory Creek sixth grade teacher Renee’ Grady coordinates the annual effort with the sixth grade staff’s help. The project filled 650 letter requests and every sixth grader at the school had a job in making the program such a success. Whether they were preparing the letter boxes, sorting the gifts into room number, bagging or loading the truck, student participation was a key factor in the success of the program. Every sixth grade student and teacher had a role.

As the gifts were collected, students wrapped them in holiday paper and wrote a letter back to each child as Santa’s helpers. Students loaded the packages onto a large truck that the Hickory Creek custodial staff drove to the Chavez School just in time for the holidays.