Just a few weeks ago, on December 15th, hundreds of Kennesaw Mountain students toiled for hours on end to provide a joyful Christmas for underprivileged students from Hayes Elementary School during Shop with a Mustang. This event consists of groups of 3 to 4 student mentors accompanying a child from Hayes to buy them clothes and toys for Christmas.
In the weeks leading up to the event, students—both individually and with their clubs—spent hours after school helping with setup, which consisted of tasks like creating snowflakes and designing banners for the hallways. The Thursday and Friday before the event, students stayed in school until 9 p.m. to finish setup.
By 7am on the day of the event, hundreds of mentors showed up despite the cold weather to help buy gifts for underprivileged communities. In fact, so many arrived that there were too many mentors for the number of students. As the children came in, they were served pancakes by our lovely PTSA volunteers. They then had the opportunity to play games and become familiar with their mentors. By 12pm, mentors and their kids drove to Woodstock Center to visit Old Navy, Target, Five and Below, and more.
Once everyone had returned to the school grounds, mentors wrapped the kids’ gifts, played with them in the courtyard, and served them pizza before returning them to their parents. After this, mentors cleaned the entirety of the SWAM decorations until 6pm. Though mentors were surely exhausted after the 10-hour rigorous workday, many were satisfied to be the reason for a child’s smile on Christmas day.