The holiday season is a time of giving, but as we enter the new year, we tend to forget that giving needs to happen 365 days a year.
Over the holiday break, Farmingdale High School students and faculty have gone above and beyond to give back to their community and plan to keep giving.
A long-standing Daler tradition, each year several Farmingdale High School students adopt a local family for Christmas. The names of the families have been removed, as they wish to remain anonymous.
Two families that were “adopted” by the school’s Child Study Lab club had especially unique and heartwarming stories. In November, a student in Ms. Brewer’s lab class became sick with a highly contagious infection.
Brewer said that while on the phone with the child’s mother, she confided in telling her not to worry if she saw the child wearing the same clothes over and over again because that is all they had.
That was all Brewer needed to hear. She asked the mother of five to get a Christmas list from each of her children. The lists she received almost broke her and her student’s hearts.
The kids asked for the simplest gifts—like a soccer ball—and the majority of what they wanted were clothes.
“Some years I have had families asking for Michael Kors bags, but these kids just wanted the necessities.” Brewer said.
After hearing the family’s story, Brewer rallied up her students, who were more than happy to help fulfill the wish lists.
for their annual holiday party.
Farmingdale High School students also adopted a family whose three-year-old son was diagnosed with leukemia. Brewer said one student approached her after learning about the situation, anxious to do something to help.
In order to take care of her child, while he is undergoing treatment, the mother left her job. Now the family of five is short an income and has mounting hospital bills and expenses to take care of.
Once again, Brewer requested Christmas lists from all of the family members, including the parents.
“If a kid sees that Mommy and Daddy didn’t get anything for Christmas, they’ll feel bad,” she said. “And the parents deserve something too.”
And again Brewer’s students came to the rescue, going out on their own and making all of this family’s Christmas wishes and more come true. They even dressed up as elves to deliver the gifts to the families.
After learning about Brewer’s many charitable works, one teacher who also works part time at a local restaurant, reached out to collaborate with the students to raise money that was divided between the two “adopted” families and another family whose house burned down in Massapequa.
This year also marked the high school’s sixth annual AHRC Christmas party and it was their biggest year yet. The party is hosted for special needs adults living in group homes. Under Brewer’s lead, the event was the biggest and best it’s ever been. “Nothing would have been possible without the kids,” she said.
Over 500 current and former students came to the celebration, turning the high school commons into a winter wonderland with the help of the art department. Farmingdale High School Principal Glen Zakian even dressed up as Santa Claus for the event.
Students also continued another holiday tradition by donating to the John Thiessen Toy Drive, which is held every year around the holidays, to collect packaged toys and games for children in hospitals across Long Island. Students collected enough toys and games to fill seven large boxes.
“Just because the holidays are over doesn’t mean the giving ends,” Brewer said.
