The giant “team room” at Berkeley County School District’s MenRiv building normally serves as an open working space for visiting teachers, administrators and district officers.
On Tuesday, with holiday music playing overhead and a self-serve hot cocoa bar brewing up cups of cheer, the room looked a tad bit different – more whimsical, for sure.
In just one day, the team room became a sea of holiday-themed wrapping paper and gift bags; it was overflowing with children’s clothes, toys, bikes and skateboards.
More importantly, the room was bustling with volunteers – including Berkeley High seniors – all working hard to make help make this the best holiday season ever for more than 200 BCSD students.
Berkeley ONEderland is a program that brings gifts and other useful donations to BCSD students in need during the holiday season. Similar to the Angel Tree program, community members sign up to sponsor a student for the holidays by purchasing wish list items.
In previous years, BCSD social workers would spend a day wrapping donated items together, and then transition from “elves” to “Santa Claus” to start delivering presents to families.
Under the direction of Dr. Lorna Manglona-Alexander this year, the district expanded its services to take on more children to sponsor for the holidays, and recruited more volunteers to help spend a day gift-wrapping at MenRiv.
Manglona-Alexander serves as the district’s McKinney-Vento Systems Navigator. The McKinney–Vento Homeless Assistance Act of 1987 is a United States federal law that provides federal money for homeless shelter programs.
Each year, Manglona-Alexander said there are more and more at-risk children who need extra help during the holidays. With that in mind, Manglona-Alexander wanted to seek more community members to support BCSD’s efforts to sponsor children.
“We had such a tremendous outpouring,” Manglona-Alexander said, adding at there were community members who even offered to sponsor more than one child.
These sponsors went above and beyond in purchasing presents for the children. The presents came to MenRiv this week to be giftwrapped by different groups of volunteers, which included a squadron from Charleston Air Force Base, BCSD special services team members, district social workers, community members, and senior members of Berkeley High’s Future Business Leaders of America (or FBLA) team.
“We got a great response – people want to do it again next year,” Manglona-Alexander said, adding she would particularly like to get more BCSD student volunteers in the future. “I like that FBLA is here; they’re able to give back, and the kids are able to see that there are other kids in need, and they’re doing something for their own peers – I love that.”
FBLA members are students who have an interest in pursuing a business career after high school. Participating students are required to demonstrate their leadership capabilities through community service events, among other requirements.
The students, led by Berkeley High business teacher Shamika Smalley, came to MenRiv in matching FBLA t-shirts ready to spend an entire day wrapping presents.
Smalley said normally their group does a toy drive at the high school, but when she learned Berkeley ONEderland was going on, she reached out to Manglona-Alexander to ask how her FBLA students could get involved.
“It’s important for them (the students) to know what it’s like to help others,” Smalley said. “It’s definitely part of character-building, and it also showcases their leadership skills.”
Berkeley High FBLA president Kamryn Richardson said lending a hand with gift-wrapping showed her how much the district supports students even beyond classroom.
“I want to come back and help more,” she said.
FBLA member Mason Salisbury and treasurer Azaria Morant said their school’s FBLA program does different acts of services throughout the year for Berkeley High and its feeder pattern schools, from donating Thanksgiving turkeys to volunteering at school events.
Salisbury said the club is preparing students for life after graduation and hopefully running their own businesses one day, but the heart of the program is connecting more with the community.
“This is my first year in FBLA and I feel like I’ve reached out to the community more than I ever have my past three years at Berkeley High,” he said.
Morant echoed similar thoughts, adding those community connections are important for building leadership skills.
“To me it’s about family…it’s like a big family group,” she said.
FBLA members said they saw a variety of gifts while they were wrapping – Nike was a popular brand, and some other hot items included sneakers, clothes, winter jackets and Pokemon-themed toys (Salisbury said the hardest thing he wrapped was a skateboard).
The seniors said they plan to let FBLA’s lowerclassmen members know to look forward to volunteering at next year’s ONEderland gift wrapping event.
Social workers will take the wrapped presents and distribute them to families through the end of the week.
