SOUTH BERWICK, Maine — It's easy to give money during the
holidays.
It's harder to give something personal, to put thought and time
and effort into a gift that might affect someone more than a signature on a
check or a couple quarters in a collection basket.
When Rachel Davis, a
2002 Berwick Academy graduate who teaches at the O.M. Lassiter School in
Kentucky, asked her old school to help her students this holiday season, many of
whom are poor, the Berwick students could have given a few dollars each – a
day's worth of lunch money, perhaps. And it would've been a nice gesture, but
they decided not to.
They wanted to do something more.
So 106
Berwick students, nearly the entire Upper School, composed of grades 9-12,
paired up with a student from Davis' sixth-grade science classes at the Lassiter
school and put together gift packages with blue "Berwick Buddy" t-shirts,
wristbands, bookmarks, and a few other small items. Most importantly, they took
the time to write a personalized letter to each Lassiter student.
The
packages weren't worth much, maybe $15, but according to Davis, it made a more
of a difference than cash or a check.
"They've been bothering me, saying,
When are we gonna get them? When are we gonna get them?" said Davis over her
cell phone from Louisville, Kentucky. The Lassiter school is located in the
outskirts of the city.
Davis received the packages Thursday and passed
them out to her students, who were ecstatic, she said.
For Davis'
students, the packages and letters were a bright spot in what often is a bleak
situation. Many come from broken families, wear the same shirt and pair of pants
day after day, qualify for free/reduced lunches, are estranged from their
parents and live without basic necessities.
As proof of address to enroll
at Lassiter, one student brought in her family's cancellation of services bill
from the electric company.
"It's a very precarious situation for a number
of students," Davis said.
And with everything going on in their lives,
sometimes there isn't much of a reason to want to go to school.
"When
you're bouncing from house to house, your Dad's in prison, you live with your
aunt —you're not going to care about school. It's a lot to live with," Davis
said.
The gift packages and letters aren't going to solve all the
Lassiter students' problems, but they give the needy students a reason to smile
at school, Davis said.
"It's something to make them happier. I think it's
needed," Davis said. "The littlest things make them happy."
Davis'
brother, Ian, is a senior at Berwick Academy. Together, they started the buddy
program in the fall by sending over a first round of postcards and letters. Dana
Clinton, a French teacher and senior class adviser at Berwick, has overseen the
buddy program and helped organize the gift baskets.
In his letter to a
Lassiter student named Dalton, Ian wrote that he liked the Boston Red
Sox.
"(Dalton's) like, Ugh…Red Sox," Davis said.
Ian said he has
enjoyed getting to know Dalton by exchanging letters.
"You're able to
connect, instead of giving money and saying, 'go buy what you want'," Ian
said.
Rachel, who upon graduating from Williams College enrolled in Teach
Kentucky— a Teach for America-like program, is always trying to find ways to
help her students. She recently raised about $2,300 to take 20 students on a
Wal-Mart shopping spree before the holidays.
The two schools have two
more gift/letter exchanges with the Lassiter students planned for Valentine's
Day and the spring.
