By Lori Leath Smith
Our December Hometown Heroes are students! And, yes, they’re heroes for tons of parents who have no way to provide a Christmas for their children. These are Fort Walton Beach High School Leadership students who stand at the forefront of Okaloosa County’s community service volunteers and dedicated help providers.
The Leadership Program is a student led cooperation which heads a vast amount of projects ranging from community publicity, Student 2 Student, Link Crew, natural disaster relief, mentoring children, community outreach, feeding the homeless, and even appealing to the state legislature for new resolutions. Their acts have been recognized by district, state, and national organizations as well as government institutions. The primary goal of the Leadership program is to challenge 9-12 grade students in both their academic and personal lives along with teaching them the importance of giving back to the community. Roughly 300 students generate as much as $30,000 each year overall to plug back into the community.
While FWBHS Leadership’s projects are vast, they are best known for their Christmas Connection project. This county wide public service provides more than 85 families and 200 children with a comprehensive Christmas. “We provide full meals up to 14 days including breakfast, lunch and dinner, as well as decorations, gifts valued at $100 for each child, and when needed, support for the families with lodging, utility bills, and additional expenses,” says Ryanne Foster, SGA president. “And we raise roughly $20,000!”
Held in November is the annual student-led Chowdown fundraiser—a potluck extravaganza involving students, parents, and others. For a mere $5 a plate, you can gorge yourself on homemade meals and restaurant sponsored favorites.
“Each year, it seems the need is even greater,” says Ryanne. “Thus, comes the various sponsors we must bring in and the, very important, Wal Mart fundraiser. Each of us in Leadership works tirelessly to collect donations from the community whether monetary or materialistic,” she says. “We literally stand outside of Wal-Mart with signs and buckets tempting the kindness of shoppers for money donations,” says Ryanne, “but it brings in about $2,000 each year to help these families we’ve taken under our wings.”
Then the fun happens in December. “We begin to meet and get to know the families in our care,” says Ryanne. “These families are people just like me and you, and just as deserving of a comprehensive Christmas.” Through the “meet-and-greets” with the families, students become acquainted and gain information on the children’s toy/clothes preferences, and the needs of the parents. They then plan how to ensure the family is lifted of many of their worries by Dec. 25th. Groups of five to six students help one to four families at a time. Overall, the most needed item is food. Over the past two months, Leadership has been collecting bags upon bags of canned goods and will purchase, with the donation dollars, milk, eggs, butter and hams and turkeys for the families’ Christmas dinner and the weeks ahead.
Then comes the shop ‘till they drop day, where they buy hundreds of dollars’ worth of gifts and toys for their assigned family’s children. Toys are brought to FWBHS and wrapped by students and assembled and made ready to be delivered on the 20th. This day can last until 1 a.m!
Tears of joy pour from both the eyes of the giver and of the receiver throughout the experience. These Leadership students truly make an impact on the lives of the children and of the parents. But could it be, that the very lives they’re impacting have the reverse effect? “I believe,” says Ryanne, “that my life will never be the same.”
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