While many Lawrence families this month will relax by watching holiday movies and unwrapping gifts, others will struggle to find enough food.
The season is back for the Adopt a Family Christmas project, a nonprofit program that gives organizations, including schools, a chance to spread holiday cheer by helping those in need. The Adopt a Family program was created and is still run by the Salvation Army.
“The students just need to realize that there are families that aren’t as blessed, and it would be awesome if we could help them have a good Christmas,” sophomore Courtney Nottingham said.
According to the American Community Survey (ACS) conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2011, the rate of people with family or personal income below the poverty threshold ranged from 13 to 15.9 percent in Kansas alone.
With these statistics in mind, educators and youths of LHS made the decision to participate.
“It’s cool to be a part of a program that you can find anywhere in the nation,” junior Brooke Braman said.
The Salvation Army created the Adopt a Family project to emphasize the importance of being involved and helping others in the community. School participation has played a key role in the success and expansion of the project. Many students agreed youth participation should continue to grow.
“It’s important to show the rest of Lawrence that LHS cares about the less fortunate families in our community,” Nottingham said.
In previous years, LHS provided for about 20 to 30 families annually. This year, the expectations are set just as high, with 34 low-income families being provided for. Nottingham became the lead Student Council coordinator of the project and believes these expectations will be easy to meet.
“Usually Adopt a Family has a great turnout, and I feel it will be a success this year as well,” Notthingham said. “The key is to get the students involved and excited to help out the needy families.”
With such high expectations, some teachers added extra motivational tools. They spoke with their second hour classes about hosting pizza parties and extra credit opportunities if donations were met.
Each second hour class had the option to provide for a small, medium or large family. The decision was made based on students’ overall willingness and capability of providing enough money in each classroom.
“Even simply bringing spare change could help out and get others more involved,” Nottingham said.
Twenty-two of the 34 participating classes chose to donate to small families. Out of the remaining classes, 10 chose to support medium families, and two classes selected large families.
Although the program is typically successful, there have been a few classes that struggled to fulfill their donation expectations. In such situations, either StuCo or other second hour classrooms have used their extra funds to compensate.
The collection date for second hour classes is Thursday. At that time, teachers turn classroom donations over to StuCo representatives, who will take them to the Salvation Army warehouse. Families get to pick up their donations the following week, just before Christmas — either Dec. 18 or 19.
Sometimes the meaning of the holidays is lost in the chaos of shopping, traveling and the presents that come with it. Adopt a Family helps people focus on giving.
