INDEPENDENCE, Mo. – The Independence School District’s ‘Holiday Helpers Program’ is helping parents who can’t afford Christmas gifts put presents under the tree this year. The program lets parents volunteer in schools or at area non-profits to earn gift cards. Then the gift cards can be used anywhere to purchase presents for Christmas morning.
“Santa was going to be a little short, and I didn’t know how I was going to pull off to make sure Santa actually came,” said Brenda Evilsizer, who is volunteering in the program. “This was a big life saver for us this year.”
Evilsizer spends time at Bryant Elementary School, where her grandchildren attend, working in the library, helping with classroom parties and putting together snack bags. She told FOX 4 she adopted her grandchildren several years ago and wants this Christmas to be special.
Evilsizer’s granddaughter, Kala Groves, said she loves seeing her grandma at school.
“If we were to have parties and stuff in our classroom, she would probably deliver the popcorn and stuff,” she said.
Evilsizer said thanks to the program she was able to buy her grandchildren an easy bake oven and transformer toys.
“There’s no way I could afford that, so it just finished paying off what I wasn’t going to be able to,” she said.
John Tramel, director of Neighborhood and Family Services with the school district, said the program makes Christmas shopping more rewarding for parents, since they have to earn the gift cards. For many parents, it’s also special to be able to wrap their own gifts and pick them out, rather than somebody else donating them.
“They know their family best, you know, a stranger might have some concern and compassion for children, but the parent, the grandparent, the guardian, they know their kids best,” Tramel said.
