Schools, staff, students team up to provide food, gifts
Dec. 16, 2022 / Bonanza Junior/Senior High Principal Jordan Osborn and Counselor Andy Davis spent Thursday evening shopping, purchasing gifts and food for more than 60 families in their community.
“We just wanted to provide some holiday cheer and are able to do so with the generous support of our community,” Osborn said. “It’s important to us to take care of our kids. This is the way we show we love them.”
This is the sixth year Osborn and Davis have worked together to provide food boxes and gifts to students and families in their school communities. They started the project in Chiloquin, and continued the holiday tradition when they both began working at Bonanza four years ago.
The past few years, Bonanza Schools have teamed up with Bonanza Cares, a non-profit community organization, that provided for 26 families at the elementary and high schools. Bonanza High’s leadership team, with the help of more than $2,000 in donations, was able to provide clothing, gifts, food, and vouchers to Fred Meyer to an additional 60 Bonanza and Gearhart families.
Students and staff throughout the Klamath County School District this week teamed up with community organizations and each other to make the holidays a bit brighter – and yummier – for their communities. Several schools hosted food drives or coin drives to benefit local food banks and organizations. Henley Elementary School staff donated pajamas, hats, and mittens to CASA, a non-profit that represents foster children in court. Mazama High School FBLA students prepared and delivered 51 personal hygiene bags to the Klamath Falls Gospel Mission, and National Honor Society students wrote Christmas cards and built care baskets for local assisted living residents.
The Klamath County Transition Program provided full holiday dinners with staples to eight families. Peterson Elementary School, with donations from Northwest Farm Credit and Great Basin Insurance, was able to give turkeys and food boxes to 25 families in need. Henley High’s Giving Tree project provided gifts and a holiday dinner basket for 13 families and 33 children.
Henley students also took on a giving project for Klamath Hospice patients this week. The Henley High Student Council, Honor Society and Henley Middle School leadership students joined forces with the anonymous Apple Pie Gang to put together meaningful gift bags for hospice patients.
On Wednesday, Henley Student Council members put together the gifts for hospice patients and caroled at long-term care facilities in Klamath Falls.
The hospice gift project started with a group of retired educators who called themselves the Apple Pie Gang. Each donor would donate $200 and a group member did all of the shopping. Then, they would meet one evening to organize and build the bags. In 2012, they approached Kristi Sturgeon and her Mazama leadership students to become the “purchasers and builders,” with the donors continuing to provide the funds for the project. Sturgeon brought the project to the Henley Complex in 2021 and the Henley High student council purchases items and enlists the help of Henley Middle School leadership students to write the recipients a Christmas card. Student Council and Honor Society students then put together the bags and gets them ready for delivery. Klamath Hospice delivers the gifts during their regularly scheduled visits.
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