As the semester come to an end, Leadership is hosting their annual holiday drive, with this year’s “Toy Story” theme. As children at the Samaritan House and around the neighborhood receive new toys for the holidays, this toy drive also reminds Aragon students to give back to the community and to those who need support. The toys will be donated through the San Mateo Fire Department. The toy drive began on Dec. 1, and will end on Dec. 16, and Leadership hopes students will donate around 1,600 gifts. As of Dec. 12, they have received 502 toys.
The drive, so far, isn’t doing as well as Leadership hoped. “We publicized the toy drive late this year, usually we publicize about a month ahead of schedule,” explains senior Carolin Jia, “Also, our fundraisers are usually three weeks long, while this one is only two weeks long.” However, they still hope to meet their goal as the toy drive comes to an end. “Usually, the drives we’ve done in the past really kicked off towards the end of the drive, so we’re hoping that we get more toys toward the end of the week,” says Jia.
After considering their options, Leadership chose the San Mateo Fire Department due to its location and experience. Senior Sabrina Taylor says, “The San Mateo Fire Department is somewhere close by, and also, we have done partnerships with them before, in toy drives in the past … they do the whole parade to the Samaritan House and hand out the toys.”
Two years ago, Leadership hosted a toy drive that came out to be a huge success with the help of students’ donations. Senior Carolin Jia recalls, “[Aragon] donated, I think, three times as many toys as we wanted.” Donating also impacts students in a more meaningful way, highlighting the importance of giving back to their community and helping others. Jia explains, “[The toy drive is] to raise awareness that during the holiday season, not everything is as great as many families have it out to be … No matter what economic class [students] are [in], or what status they are … Anyone can donate.”
Junior Kevin Flores stresses the importance of the time of the toy drive. He states, “Holidays [are] for giving and love, so I think it is a good purpose for this time of year.”
Impacting the lives of children reminds others to give back to those who do not have the opportunity to enjoy the holidays due to the limit and stress of dealing with money. Freshman Steven Zheng says, “[Donating] makes you feel like you’ve actually benefited someone.”
