Schools
Oak Forest HS Students Help Those in Need this Holiday Season
Several organizations within the school collected a variety of items for the needy
In this holiday season, the students at Oak Forest High School know that there are other people in their community that are not as lucky as they are. As a result, students worked hard to make sure some families are warm and fed, and that veterans have books to read.
The Oak Forest High School Student Council sponsored a food drive. The food that was collected will be taken to the Together We Cope food pantry in Tinley Park. According to OFHS Student Council Sponsor Amy Bertrand, “The pantry is always tremendously grateful for our food donation.”
The OFHS Library collected warm mittens and gloves. Through the generous donations of teachers and their student library patrons, they were able to donate 26 pairs of gloves and mittens to families that need them at Together We Cope. OFHS Librarian Cheryl Harris-Sumida said, “We [the library staff] feel like we have so much and we were conscious that, as the weather gets colder, some people would need warmer clothes and accessories to use to combat the winter chill.”
The Oak Forest food service, Sodexo, also got involved to help needy students this holiday season. They sold a baker’s dozen of the highly coveted cookies that people could make at home to fill their houses with the delicious aroma of Sodexo cookies, with a percentage of the sales going towards students in need.
The DECA Club sponsored a Veteran’s book drive. According to OFHS DECA Adviser Katie Gomez, in order to encourage students to donate books for veterans, the DECA Club arranged for ten teachers to agree to take a pie in the face. Each book a student donates would equal a vote for one of those ten teachers to get the pie in the face. The voting and the book donations are still in process, so stay tuned for the results!
The Kama Literary magazine was involved with two drives this holiday season. First, they collected holiday cards for veterans who go to the Heinz food pantry. According to OFHS Kama Adviser Lauren Brazel, “Many of these vets are homeless, or do not have families, and could use some cheer!” The second drive was for Hope Children’s Hospital in Oak Lawn. These cards will go to children who are forced to stay in the hospital during the holiday season. As that is a hard time for anyone, Kama wanted the children to know that someone was thinking about them!
As you can see, students at OFHS were busy during the month of December working hard trying to help other people. These students have a heart of gold!
