Students spread holiday cheer through crafts
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ST. IGNATIUS — Every year for the past seven, St. Ignatius Middle School teacher Valerie Umphrey’s classroom has been transformed into a small version of Santa’s workshop during November and December.
The elves are students, and they fashion crafts like holiday wreaths, Yule logs, pinecone reindeer, jewelry and snowman doorstops to sell in the weeks leading up to Christmas. But the kids aren’t making money for themselves; all the proceeds go to buy Christmas gifts for children whose names are on Share the Spirit “angel trees.”
On Dec. 17, Umphrey and fellow teacher Dorothy VonHoltum will load a group of middle-schoolers on a bus and head to Walmart in Polson, where the kids will go on an all-out shopping spree with the money they’ve earned by selling crafts. It’s a fun time, and a bit hectic, but Umphrey said she’s never had a discipline problem with students in all the years since Dogs With Wings, as she and VonHoltum named the program, started.
“The kids buy into (the idea),” Umphrey explained.
The group usually spends about $50 per gift, but if an angel tree child requested a bike or a baby needs a crib, “sometimes we splurge,” VonHoltum said.
“We let the kids decide,” Umphrey added.
This year, the teachers decided to take the Dogs With Wings project a step further with a visit to the Poverello Center in Missoula, a nonprofit organization that helps homeless people. After a tour of the center, students made sandwiches and packed lunches for center residents who leave for work during the day, which made for an eye-opening experience for the kids, VonHoltum said.
While the students were given the opportunity to have lunch at the center, they turned down the offer, choosing to just work instead.
“We said, ‘No, we’re helping out,’” eighth-grader Gregory Weatherwax explained.
The kids also learned an interesting fact about what sort of donations are most needed at the Poverello Center.
“Where they really come up short is toilet paper, because no one donates that,” Umphrey said.
Students involved with Dogs With Wings decided to share what they’d learned with the rest of the middle school, and after presenting the idea to student council, it’s official: sixth, seventh and eighth grades will have a weeklong competition to see which grade can collect the most toilet paper. And all the donations will be given to the Poverello Center in the form of toilet paper Christmas trees.
“That’s what (the Poverello Center) said they needed, so that’s what they’re doing,” student council advisor Richard Martin said.
Dogs With Wings crafts are for sale anytime during school hours, and students will have a table at some school sporting events, VonHoltum said. For more information on buying crafts or donating toilet paper, call 745-3811 and ask for Umphrey’s classroom.
