District 139 staff teams up with community sponsors and CHS Football Team to make project a huge success
By Jim Beers, Contributing Writer
CHESTER – An annual event coordinated by Chester School District # 139 staff has once again successfully provided Christmas gifts to children at CGS and CHS. Cindy Ponder, School Social Worker, and Jerina Reese, School Nurse, served as coordinators for the annual Christmas project and numerous staff at CGS and CHS worked together to make Christmas just a bit brighter for 90 kids in 2022.
The project began almost two decades ago when School Nurse, Melanie Winters recruited the help and efforts of the District # 139 Wellness Coordinator, numerous staff members at both CGS and CHS, organizations in the community of Chester and many individuals to make the Christmas project happen.
Chester High School Football players pose for a photo after delivering 90 gift bags for students in District 139 at Chester Grade School and Chester High School. The players shopped at Chester Walmart for toys and various community sponsors donated clothes and other items to complete the gift bags. School Social Worker Cindy Ponder and School Nurse Jerina R Tese coordinated to anual project that has been in existence for decades. Jim Beers Photo
Cindy Ponder, School Social Worker, who began her career at CGS in the fall of 2002, has since then been a key coordinator for the project along with the newest School Nurse, Jerina Reese.
Early efforts served approximately 50 students. Over the years, outside sponsors made it possible to expand the project and in recent years as many as 100-plus students were given gifts at Christmas via the project.
Ponder said, “I love working with the School Nurse in coordinating the effort. CGS staff members have become very supportive and active in helping out with various aspects of the program and outside sponsors have really become instrumental with providing monetary sponsorships enabling us to expand the program.”
“With increased demands on teachers and staff over the years, it has at times become almost too much to handle. I actually begin seeking names of students who might benefit from some extra Christmas gifts in early September of each year. I work with the School Nurse, Jerina Reese constantly to plan, organize and implement the project that takes place in mid-December.”
CHS Football players and coaches shopped for 90 kids who were selected to receive gifts this Christmas as part of the 2022 Christmas Gift Program. This annual event is coordinated by Chester School District # 139 Social Worker, Cindy Ponder and School Nurse, Jerina Reese. Shown here at the Sporting Goods Check Out Counter are Walmart employees Savannah Kumke and Lisa Kochanski; CHS YellowJacket Football Players Trevor Keeton and Jakob Steuve; CHS Head Football Coach Billy Belton, CHS/CGS Physical Education Teacher, Erin Belton, wife of Coach Belton and Cindy Ponder, School Social Worker from the Perandoe Special Education District. Jim Beers Photo
All school nurses throughout the years have been instrumental in making the project a success. Two very instrumental nurses in recent years who made great strides in increasing the number of students served include Nurse “Amy” Eggemeyer and, Nurse “Nikki” Maue. Both have now “moved on” to accept employment elsewhere.
“Nurse ‘Jerina’ Reese accepted the School Nurse position for the District several years ago and she has learned very quickly to help manage the Christmas project. She works hard and has been a great help in coordinating an effort that will served 90 students this year”, said Ponder.
The early program was called the “Adopt-A-Family” program and individuals in the community, teachers, staff and some outside organizations adopted or chose individual students and provided their gifts.
Those who adopted the students would shop for gifts, wrap the gifts, box or bag them and deliver them to the school. School volunteers would often deliver the gifts to the homes of the chosen students.
As the program expanded and logistics became too difficult for direct individual sponsorships, more recent organizers of the project chose to have all donations consolidated and once gifts are purchased and wrapped, parents of recipient students come to CGS to pick up the gifts.
The new consolidated method of conducting the project was also physically necessary once the number of students served rose above the 50 mark. Several “major” financial sponsors helped to usher in the new procedures as well as several “outside” contributors of time, talent and resources.
Two such major financial contributors include the local Chester Walmart store and Knight Hawk Coal Company. Each of those key sponsors contribute major contributions each year to make the expansion of the program possible.
With the increased amount of money to spend on gifts also came added time and effort to purchase gifts for the selected students. The Chester YellowJacket Football Team stepped up several years ago and volunteered to handle that portion of the responsibility.
Nearly 13 years ago, then Head Football Coach Bryan Lee, volunteered his football players to shop for the kids. Lee coordinated the monetary donations from the major sponsors and two Saturdays before Christmas, the entire football team converged on Walmart and spent the biggest part of the morning shopping for the kids selected to receive gifts at Christmas.
Current CHS Principal, Jeremy Blechle, said, “Coach Lee started having his team shop for kids 13 years ago. He stressed to his players that there was much more to playing football than being on the field. Lee wanted his players to learn to be good citizens and to help others less fortunate, and to lend a hand.”
“He wanted his players to act like young adults and experience the feeling of helping others and to enjoy the great happiness they would give to children on Christmas morning by shopping for their gifts.”
“Finally, Lee wanted his players to ‘give back’ to the community that so greatly has always supported them at games and both on and off the field. He helped them realize that they make a huge impact on the lives of these kids and their families just by taking the time out of their Saturday to purchase gifts for Christmas.”
Since the time of former CHS Coach Bryan Lee, all other subsequent YellowJacket Head Coaches have maintained the practice of shopping for the kids in the Christmas project.
Current Head Coach, Billy Belton and his coaching staff have been excellent in continuing the practice of shopping for kids and have almost “perfect attendance” from their players at all levels on shopping Saturdays.
Coach Belton said, “This is my 6th season as Head Coach and I always enjoy helping to shop for the kids. It is a great event and our players always have a good time helping out and shopping, even those who are assigned to shop for little girls.”
“This is an event that our players will remember for a lifetime and it teaches them to ‘give back’ to the community that strongly supports them, both on and off of the field. It teaches them life lessons that will help them into their adult lives. They like shopping for others and get a good feeling via the process.”
“We have a great bunch of seniors this year that provide good leadership, so for them it was a natural assignment to help lead the shopping. All of the players at all levels were great, however, and reported that they had a wonderful time helping others!”
When finished shopping, all gifts were brought to Nurse Jerina Reese and Social Worker, Cindy Ponder who immediately took the gifts to the checkout counter in the sporting goods section of Walmart where items were purchased, bagged and given to assistant coaches who loaded them into pickup trucks to be transported to Chester Grade School.
Cindy Ponder and Jerina Reese have worked hard for months preparing this annual project getting volunteers, arranging financing and coordinating the various other aspects of making everything happen as planned. Both Ponder and Reese are quick to pass out credit to others who help make the ‘shopping for kids project’ possible.
“Without everyone contributing their parts, this project would not be possible. First of all, we must thank our major financial contributors, Walmart and Knight Hawk Coal. Many other entities also contribute financial support as well as toys, logistics, time and effort and physical assistance,” said Ponder.
Nurse Jerina Reese said, “We especially need to thank the CHS Football players and Coaches for shopping for the kids and delivering the gifts to CGS to process and distribute. We also need to thank Wee Care of Jacob; St. John’s Angel Tree; Chester First Baptist Church, Love Abby, Paul Gentry and State Farm Insurance of Chester, Memorial Hospital of Chester; and Ebenezer Church of Rockwood for their support and donations.”