The student councils from Coronado and Franklin high schools played Santa to more than 300 Zavala Elementary students last week for their annual Holiday Blessing event.
High-school students, along with the help of the Don Haskins PK-8 community, gave Zavala students a box filled with an outfit or shoes, a blanket, pajamas, a toy and another special gift. The two high schools have joined together to shower a campus with gifts for about a decade.
“We are very grateful to all the participants who made this happen,” said Zavala counselor Ana Miranda. “I am a big believer of kindness and let me tell you, this was amazing to see. The kindness shown was beautiful. It made the students’ day – a true holiday blessing!
The event was extra special to Coronado student Edgar Rios, a former Zavala student who was a Holiday Blessing recipient on two different occasions.
“When I received the gifts, I was filled with joy and excitement because I got extra gifts –something that had never happened to me before,” Rios said. “It felt nostalgic to be in the giving side this time because I got to enter my old classrooms and rekindle old memories and emotions that I had forgot about. I also felt like repaying a favor and gifts that had once been given to me. I had never thought of the preparation, time and effort that is put to these holiday blessings that never crossed my mind when I was younger.”
Rios and his fellow StuCo students from Coronado and Franklin handed out the gifts to the students, smiling while the little ones tore through their box filled with goodies.
“The students were overjoyed,” Miranda said. “They didn’t expect something so grand. It brought smile after smile to every child, and I mean every child because no one went away without.”
