The Shoemaker Bugle

By Itzmali Vazquez

It’s that time of the year were children get excited to receive gifts from Santa Claus and parents go Christmas shopping for their children. However, there are some children that do not get to celebrate Christmas like others–they don’t get a Christmas tree or receive any gifts because their parent or guardian can not afford them.That’s the reason that Mrs. Garcia put in the effort to create the Adopt-a-Family Event through the Red Cross Club for cadets that have the opportunity to help others in need.

Cadets will make a group with other cadets to adopt a family or they also have the choice to adopt a family on their own. Each person or group gets a family that has kids and they can pick if they want a girl or boy. Then they receive a paper with the kids information like their name, age, and also their family’s information just in case we need to contact them for anything that we need. Sometimes we want to know their favorite foods, snacks, color, or cartoon character.

Once cadets have the information that they need, each cadet in the group will be assigned to buy something for the child and create a basket. If they are alone they will have to buy everything that they need. They are given a specific time to make some type of basket including their child’s favorite things like toys, snacks, clothes, or shoes. Children are then given a specific day where that family will come and meet the group or person that made the basket for them and the cadet will have a chance to meet the child that they made a basket for and open their gifts with them.

Every year the Red Cross Club hosts an Adopt-a-Family event. This is an event where you are assigned to a family in need. Once you are assigned that family you get the wants and needs of the family including the sizes of clothes, shoes, etc. You independently go out to a shop for the family and are able to get them gifts and wrap them. And when it’s time the ones who adopted a family are able to meet the families and they get to exchange words with the family.