By Jim Beers, Contributing Writer
CHESTER — The 2021 Chester School District # 139 Christmas Gift Program made Christmas a lot better for 103 children in Chester. The effort has been ongoing for at least two decades in one form or another and has continued to grow the past decade.
Cindy Ponder, School Social Worker from the Perandoe Special Education District, helps to coordinate the annual effort along with School Nurse, Jurina Reese.
Ponder said, “This program is really a team effort with numerous people and organizations contributing to its success. Jurina and I just serve as coordinators of all of the many efforts of those numerous entities.”
The program actually started back in the early 2000’s with Melanie Winters, School Nurse at that time, coordinating a similar program with the help of the District Wellness Coordinator.
Amy Eggemeyer, a more recent School Nurse with District # 139, expanded the program and increased community involvement and fundraising. Upon her departure from the District, Nurse Nikki Maue assumed responsibility for the project and Ponder assisted her. When Maue left the District two years ago, Ponder and Reese continued the effort.
The program starts with teachers recommending the names of students at both the grade school and high school who might not have a good Christmas due to a number of possible reasons. Those recommendations are reviewed by a Christmas Committee who in turn decide what students are chosen to be the recipients of gifts at Christmas time. That committee is made up of teachers and staff from both the grade school and high school.
Once those students are selected, they provide a “wish list” of items that they might want for Christmas. Lists are then summarized per recipient and shopping lists are created and categorized by age and gender. Only the coordinators know the logging system that coincides with the actual names of the student-recipients.
There are several organizations, individuals, clubs and other entities who opt to shop for recipients themselves. They fund, shop, wrap, and deliver the gifts to the school where they are sorted, labeled, and made ready for parent pick-up on the assigned date and times.
Those providers include We Care of Jacob, Memorial Hospital of Chester, St. John Lutheran Church Angel tree in Chester, Love Abby, State Farm Insurance, and Ebenezer Church in Rockwood.
