On Nov. 27th, Calabasas announced a partnership with the Adopt-A-Family foundation to help “families with limited financial resources” have a much better Christmas than what they commonly experience. This year, the school “adopted” the Martinez family. Each department participating was assigned a member of the family and a wishlist as to what that family member would like for Christmas. Students were able to either buy an item off the wishlist or bring money to participating teachers, which would all eventually be collected and given to the family.
The partnership comes in substitution of a holiday toy drive, which CHS initially planned on holding, but a school club had already chosen to host one. So, Calabasas decided to go with Adopt-A-Family, and, seeing that they’ve previously worked with the foundation, it was an easy decision.
“We didn’t want to interfere with [Little Dreamers Big Dreams’s] drive, and we thought this would be a little different,” said ASB Advisor Kelly Ortiz. “It gets [to] a family more directly, where we can provide for them, as opposed to, ‘Here are a bunch of toys for whomever.’ This way, it was just more personalized.”
While every teacher was emailed about participating with Adopt-A-Family, only about 12 teachers in Calabasas are partaking in helping the organization. However, most of the participating teachers already have previous experience in acts of service, which influenced their decision to be involved in the program this year.
“I donate regularly to a food bank here in the San Fernando Valley, and I’ve volunteered hours working passing out food,” said Spanish teacher Caryl Benner. “I see the appreciation and gratitude from people who don’t have a lot, and being able to make that difference in their lives is very important.”
Benner stresses that by helping others who have less, people improve themselves and the state of their community.
“I think we have to consider ourselves part of a community, and when there are people who don’t have enough, reaching out to them and helping them is extremely important for our community and our society to function well together,” said Benner.
Adopt-A-Family is one of many ways students and teachers can serve..
“My wife and I do a yearly charity called Operation Christmas Child,” said AP Human Geography and U.S. History teacher Brian Edelman. “My wife did it for a long time, and now we’ve done it together for about four or five years. We usually get two or three boxes together, and we go to different toy stores and dollar stores and get a bunch of little goodies, toys, and school supplies for the kids and hand them out.”
If the enthusiasm seen in recent days says anything, it’s very likely that this will not be the last time Calabasas and Adopt-A-Family partner together to lift the holiday spirits of one lucky family.
“I think we will do it again,” said Ortiz. “I think there’s been a positive turnout. As of now, everyone seems really excited about it, so I would love to see it happen next year.”
