Northwest High School’s Adopt a Family program spread the holiday cheer from November 8 to December 18. The program was hosted by district service coordinator Marnie Hade, who has been the head of the program for over 20 years.
Adopt a Family is a program in which the Northwest Community “adopts” several families within the school district, helping to make their holidays special by donating clothing, nonperishable foods, toys, self-care items, and more.
Families submit wish lists, and their requests are placed on a Giving Tree by the gym entrance. Adopt a Family is also held in all Northwest Community School (NWCS) buildings for children of all ages.
After the given items are bought for the families, they are packaged and wrapped. The families come to collect them on the last day of the event.
Inspired by Angel Trees, Hade made the Giving Tree with the Student Council’s help over 20 years ago. It is a Christmas Tree decorated with paper ornaments of student requests. They started with only one or two families on the tree and expanded from there.
Over 85 families received food and toiletries this year, and over 60 clothing, toys, and books with the help of the Jackson community.
Hade faces the challenge of being unable to give a gift to every person who needs it.
“It is just because the need is vast,” said Hade. “We live in a school district where there are a lot of families that could use a lot of help. It is really hard to tell people that we can not.”
To get food and other necessities, Hade reaches out to local businesses and individuals attempting to negotiate for cheaper items or, with the help of grants from food banks, arranges for foods like macaroni and cheese and vegetables. The items from the food banks can not be on the trees.
One North Kitchen and Bar, a popular restaurant in Jackson, is one of the restaurants that helped with Adopt a Family. They donated 50 cents after selling one of the One North Cares items to the school. These included mozzarella sticks, 1N rice bowls, sirloin, and pulled pork sandwiches.
For volunteer hours, students helped by creating ornaments for the trees, buying items for the families, bringing items from the trees, and more every Tuesday and Thursday until the event ended. Adults also help, but typically later in the evenings after students have gone home.
One of the volunteers, Senior Mollie Robinson, has helped with Adopt a Family by buying gifts for an adopted family and delivering them to their home. As members of Varsity Softball, each team member does this as well.
Though Robinson enjoys aiding in the program, finding some of the requested items in-store is challenging. Because certain items are sold out, she travels to multiple store locations to try and find them.
After delivering the gifts to the families, Robinson noted overwhelming emotion.
“We have had many parents start crying and hugging us with joy and honestly it’s one of the best things we as a community could ask for,” said Robinson.
Being a child who always had presents underneath the Christmas tree, it brings her immense joy to know she is contributing to that for other children.
With the help of Adopt a Family, NWCS families can end the Christmas season on a happier and less stressful note.
“If I can do it with my schedule, everyone can,” said Hade.
