For seven straight years, Mrs. Angie Bertrand’s fifth grade class from Early Elementary has been keeping the spirit of Christmas alive and well.  Beginning with practically nothing, a box of ornaments purchased on clearance after Christmas the previous year, they turn “practically nothing” into a lifelong lesson of giving and a shopping spree most kids would only dream of.

The project begins each year in early November with the annual EHS musical put on under the direction of Mrs. Judy Reed.

“After attending a musical that my niece was involved in, I noticed that there was a need for a snack during intermission,” said Mrs. Bertrand.

With permission from Mrs. Reed, the fifth grade has filled this need each year by selling cookies and drinks to the hungry and thirsty play enthusiasts.  Mrs. Bertrand’s mom, Yvonne Perry, provides a donation for the start-up costs involved and the project takes off from there.

Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the most important phase of the project, selling ornaments.  Each ornament is carefully tied with a tag that reads:

“I represent the spirit of a child at Christmas time.  I am the twinkle in her eye and the bounce in his step on Christmas morning.  I am the giggle under the covers and the thoughts that keep them awake on Christmas Eve.  I am the belief in Santa and that anything is possible.”

Students take them home and sell them to as many friends and family members as possible.  Of course, donations from that favorite aunt, uncle, and grandparent are always gratefully accepted as well.

The week after Thanksgiving is when ornament sales begin at school.  Mrs. Bertrand’s students give up their tutorial and/or recess time each day to sell the ornaments to the other Early Elementary third, fourth and fifth grade students and staff.  At $1 each, they sell pretty quickly.  Any given day of sales averages between $20 and $50.

Ornament sales only make up a portion of the profit though.  Along with cookie sales from the play,a bake sale put together by some parents raised close to $400 to contribute to the fund.   The rest comes from donations from very generous members of the Early Elementary staff including individual and group contributions.  In the end, Mrs. Bertrand’s class had approximately $1700 collected.

This is when the shopping spree comes in.  The extremely proud and excited class hops on a bus for a field trip to Wal-mart.  Twenty-three students, a handful of staff, and a couple of volunteers set out to spend every penny of the money on toys.  This year each student was enthused to spend $72.50 on any type of toy they wanted.

“Wanda Martin of Toys for Kids asked us to purchase items for kids of the students’ own ages…10 and up,” Bertrand said.  “This made the shopping very easy for them.  They could just pick out things that they knew they would enjoy themselves.”

After an hour and a half of shopping and a check-out similar to one you might see on Extreme Couponing, the students loaded their purchases onto the school bus and delivered them to Toys for Kids.  “What a feeling,” said Braden Summers, “I really feel good about what we just did!”

Payge Gerth added, “I like doing good things for others.  I know that something good will happen to me in return.”

A lot of planning, time, and patience go into a project like this, but it is always rewarding in the end.  Mrs. Bertrand would like to thank her students, their parents, and everyone that donated money and baked goods to make this project successful.  A special thanks goes out to Wanda and the entire Thacker family for taking on the huge task of proving toys for the kids of Brownwood through Toys for Kids.

Pictured at top making the donation to Toys for Kids – Front seated: Bo Hunter, Ayden Bailey, Reece Rodgers, Kurtis Landry, Sailor Chrane, Austin Titus, Austin Deavers
Circling the table (left to right): Boston Hudson, KaeDynn Schneider, Braden Summers, Ethen Portillo, Nathan Mitchell, Madalynn Collett, Juleya Crawford, Allie Blasingame, Vance Cady Gordon, Rakshika Pandey, Anna Arrington, Dylani Mitchell, Victor Bastardo, Macey Jacobs, Payge Gerth, Tristyn Dunlap