Second graders donate cans to help fellow kids

    Students at Stewart Elementary are learning the true meaning of Christmas. Two second grade classes donated 3,440 pop cans and bottles to raise money for children in HACAP?s ?adopt-a-family? program. Second-grade teachers Joan Hippen and June Hunter organized the can drive this year, which brought in about $172. Hippen?s class took the money to Walmart where they spent it on clothing and toys for four anonymous children.

    ?We spent exactly $43 on each kid,? said Hippen.

    Hippen said her class even picked out which clothes and which toys to buy. Faced with the burden of staying within a budget, the students acquired a much better sense of how far $43 goes.

    The kids she chose were local children she saw on an angel tree in town. She and her class didn?t know anything about the children other than their ages and their wish lists.

    ?We don?t know who the gifts are going to,? she said. ?We just know that someone is going to be smiling on Christmas morning because of us. For me, it made my day when we were wrapping the presents and someone said, ?This person is going to be so excited when they open this.? Hearing that makes all the work worth it.?

    Hunter remarked that although some kids didn?t bring pop cans to school, their parents redeemed them at a store and then donated the money toward the pop can drive. She said most of the kids who brought cans to school were those who are dropped off at school by their parents. She said some parents didn?t want their kids to have to carry a bag of cans on the bus.

For more, see our Dec. 22 print edition.