ST. PAUL – Inside a classroom at the St. Paul Regional High School are piles of wrapped presents for the annual Santa’s Elves initiative. Outside the door in the hallway is a class of Grade 5 students busily wrapping more gifts.
The young students are from the nearby École St. Paul Elementary School. They made the trip to the high school to donate half of the money raised from a candy cane fundraiser to Santa’s Elves.
Santa’s Elves make up part of the 2022 St. Paul Community Christmas Hamper program, which also includes a food hamper portion in addition to the gifts gathered by Santa’s Elves.
RELATED: Community comes together for another annual Christmas hamper program
Jana Dechaine, a teacher at the elementary school, said the Grade 5 class decided on their own to do a candy cane fundraiser, “and they decided to donate half of the money they made to the Santa’s Elves here at the high school.”
The other half of the money will be donated to the St. Paul & District Food Bank, according to Dechaine. She said around $1,200 was raised by the students through the sale of candy canes.
She said that as a teacher, she is proud of her students.
“It’s part of our religion program to do charitable work, and they came up with the whole idea and organized it,” said Dechaine. “I was just there to guide and facilitate.”
Jakin Parenteau was among the students. He said the class thought “it would be nice to do a fundraiser for something.”
With Christmas spirit in the air, the class decided to “do candy canes and stuff like that,” said Parenteau. “It just happened to work out so well, and we made over $1,000.”
Parenteau said he feels happy about the fundraiser and feels “good supporting the community,” which he believes is echoed by everyone in his class.
He thanked everyone in his class as he looked behind him toward a line formed by his classmates, stating, “and it was fun for all of us, I think.”
When asked if everyone in the class had fun, a resounding “yes” could be heard clearly.
“I hope we can do another fundraiser sometime and donate again,” concluded Parenteau.
Santa’s Elves
Dechaine thought it would be a “great idea” to have her students stop by the high school to present the money in person.
“We thought we’d show them where all the toy donations are,” and give the students the opportunity to help by wrapping a present, she said.
Corey deMoissac, vice-principal at St. Paul Regional High School and president of the Santa’s Elves program, said 300 to 400 gifts are wrapped annually for the Santa’s Elves.
“We have kids in the high school come in” and help wrapping gifts whenever they can, for example during their lunch breaks, said deMoissac. When all the gifts are wrapped, deMoissac expects there will be about 450 gifts to hand out this year.
He thanked all the students who helped wrap gifts, as well as “all the people in the community that have donated gifts to this great cause.”
“We really appreciate it, whether it’s gifts or cash donations, or any of those things,” he said. “Because it goes right back to the kids and the people in the community.”
Christy Schonek, who is part of the Santa’s Elves program and an educational assistant at the St. Paul Regional High School, noted that “all kids need a Christmas gift.”
“That includes the big kids, and they are the most forgotten ones,” said Schonek, explaining, “We consider ages zero to 18 as kids... [and] All kids need a smile.”
The pick-up for the food hampers and the Santa’s Elves will be taking place at the St. Paul Rec. Centre on Dec. 20.
