From the Edgemont PTA…

The 2008 Holiday Gift Wish Drive, sponsored by the Edgemont PTA / Kids Help Kids Committee in the Town of Greenburgh’s Edgemont School District, has broken its record for the third year in a row, with the value of gifts collected totaling approximately $11,000.  These gifts will fulfill the holiday gift wishes of hundreds of children at Andrus Children’s Center and Children’s Village in Westchester County.

The Gift Wish Drive began in November when students at Greenville and Seely Place Elementary Schools volunteered to select snowman tags indicating the gifts requested.  Then their families purchased the gifts, wrapped them and returned them to the schools with the snowmen tags attached.

The Kids Help Kids Gift Drive Committee then had the task of sorting through the more than 550 gifts submitted to make sure that the right gift would be received by the right child at the right agency.  Kids Help Kids volunteers will deliver these gifts to Andrus’ residential campus in Yonkers, as well as to Andrus Mental Health Division in White Plains and to Andrus Mental Health Division and Andrus Community Program in Yonkers.  Children’s Village will send a truck to pick up all of the gifts for Children’s Village.

In recent years, the Edgemont PTA / Kids Help Kids Committee has been concentrating its efforts on helping people in Edgemont’s own backyard.   Andrus Children’s Center and Children’s Village were natural choices for the Kids Help Kids Gift Drive, since these agencies have a long history of serving thousands of underprivileged or at-risk children throughout Westchester every year.  The Andrus Children’s Center’s Campus Community and Mental Health Divisions reach 2,500 children and families every year with a broad spectrum of preventive and restorative services for families and their children from birth through adolescence. Children’s Village’s mission, accomplished through various residential, family and outreach programs, is to help children and families who are struggling to become productive, independent citizens who will enrich their communities and their future families.

A primary goal of the Kids Help Kids Committee is to instill a sense of philanthropy in the students at the two Edgemont elementary schools.  Lori Laubich, Greenville Chair of the Kids Help Kids Holiday Gift Wish Drive, gets a kick out of seeing the excitement in the Greenville kids’ faces when they see the snowman tags on display at school and the intensity with which they study the tags and make their selections of gift wishes to fulfill.  “When the children select the tags, they behave almost as if they are picking gifts for themselves.  But instead, they are experiencing this feeling in the process of giving.  This is precisely the kind of association we are seeking to promote – a sense of joy in giving.”

To keep the focus on kids helping kids, the committee encourages kids to participate in the process further by accompanying their parents when they shop for the gifts.  Some children are even generous enough to purchase the gifts with their own money.  Others make cards to attach to the gifts or help wrap them.  In addition, a few committee members involve their own children in the work of the gift drive; their children help carry and sort gifts or accompany their parents to deliver the gifts to the applicable agencies.

Ms. Laubich and Seely Place Co-Chair Deborah Melincoff rely on the time and energy of more than 30 enthusiastic volunteers to get the job done.  Preparing, distributing and tracking the tags, and then collecting, checking, sorting and delivering the gifts, are very labor-intensive processes, so both chairs expressed their appreciation for the enthusiastic support they receive from their volunteers, as well as for the generosity of so many families, teachers and staff within their community.