Patty Miller
EDMOND — Eager Northern Hills children from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade streamed through the school’s Holiday Store on Monday.
With more than 7,500 items available, 778 students will be able to purchase items from 25 cents to $5, some handmade, some not, as they buy Christmas gifts for their parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters.
“It’s for your family, not for yourselves,” said Susan Jones, pre-kindergarten teacher, as her students got ready to make their purchases.
While the older children hit the tables with the high dollar items, $5 and under, the younger children stopped at the 25 cent table.
The students could pay on the spot Monday, write an IOU and bring their money the next day, or, in some cases teachers and counselors chose the names of children to receive $5 vouchers.
“Everybody deserves to shop for their family,” said Shonda Wilson, chairwoman for the event. “I’ve held the Holiday Store for the last three years, and it is my favorite thing to do.”
Wilson and her committee chairs, Michelle Messner, Janet Vaughan and Susan Foster, began preparing for the store last January.
“To see their faces light up makes the hard work worth it,” Wilson said.
It takes more than 100 volunteers pitching in during the week the store is open, most of them PTO parents.
“It is a lot of work, making the presents and wrapping them before the store even opens,” Messner said. “We try to wrap as many of the items ahead of time as we can.”
In addition to the items purchased by the PTO for resale, parents decorated ornaments, cross-stitched towels and made pillows for the students to choose from.
As students in each of the 37 classes file through the store, they choose their items, pay for them and if the presents aren’t wrapped, the children wait while their purchases are wrapped and tagged.
“We hope to raise between seven and eight thousand dollars this year,” Wilson said.
The money will go toward items needed for the school.
pmiller@edmondsun.com | 341-2121, ext. 171
