As part of their Youth Development and Youth Leadership activities, the 17 students in the National Federation of the Blind’s (NFB) High School/High Tech Transition to Independence Club decided to adopt a family in Louisiana for Christmas. They chose a family that included a single mother, her 16-year-old daughter, 10-year-old son (who is blind) and a newborn grandchild. When Hurricane Katrina hit, the family was at the hospital for the baby’s birth. They lost their home and all of their belongings.
The High School/High Tech students baked goods and held a bake sale as a fundraiser in November; as a result, they raised approximately $425. On December 3, 2005, ten of the students went shopping for gifts for the family and spent the afternoon wrapping the gifts. They broke off into 4 teams, one each for the mother, the daughter, the son, and the baby. Each team was responsible for selecting and wrapping the gifts. The students organized the bake sale and shopping trip themselves, as well as deciding on how to split the money and what to buy. The family will now have clothes and toys for the baby, winter coats and sweaters for everyone, pots and pans for cooking, and toys and gifts to open on Christmas Day.
So, what did the students learn from this activity? They learned how to independently plan a fundraiser, how to budget money, how to independently wrap gifts, and how to work as a team to reach a common goal. The most important thing they learned, however, was how good it feels to give back to the community.
