Steinbrenner’s Legacy club held their annual shoe box drive for the fifth year in a row.
The organization that collects the boxes is called Operation Christmas Child, which sends shoe boxes filled with toys, hygiene items, and other things to children in more than 100 countries across the globe.
“Many of these children live in villages without running water or don’t get to eat a whole lot, maybe not even a meal per day in a lot of cases. They certainly have never gotten Christmas presents before and so this is an opportunity for students to provide Christmas presents to kids who really don’t have much of anything,” said Legacy club sponsor James Flaskamp.
This year, the goal was to collect 500 shoe boxes to for the drive. In order to fill extra boxes, Legacy club stayed after school on Nov. 8 and held a packing party to raise their box count.
“At the packing party there was an assembly line where there were boxes full of hygiene items, school related items, toys, and stuffed animals and we put a few things from each category into an empty box. We would also add a short handwritten message to the child so that they know the box is coming from an actual person,” said Legacy club member Grace Otto.
The final box count was 592 boxes, exceeding their goal by nearly 100. Although in years past they have raised over 700 boxes, every box will send a smile to a child in need, making new 592 smiles.
“This has become a tradition for Legacy club, and everyone seems to enjoy doing it. It’s hard to find a club member who doesn’t bring something in. The best part is that everyone gets to feel like they are part of something bigger than themselves,” said Flaskamp.
Grace Becker // News Editor
