“Santa” comes to Lenape for Homelessness Awareness

By Tessa Mansfield  

Santa is known all around the world for his story. He is known for the way he spreads joy and holiday cheer all over the world and through everyone, especially children with gift giving. He enlightens kids with the adventure and memories created with holiday traditions like Elf on the shelf. Imagine seeing the bright faced kids waking up every morning to see the mischief the elf was up to throughout the night while making sure the children behave before Santa’s arrival. Some parents enjoy playing along with their children in helping them try to catch Santa Claus by following his snowy footprints or cookie crumb trail. Most importantly wrapping up the gifts and seeing the joy on the children’s faces in the morning as they rip the paper off the gift, to their surprise see the gift they have been oh so patiently waiting for since they put it on their Christmas list and sent it off to Santa’s workshop. When asked, a Lenape junior Hannah Greenia in cosmetology said that she felt the Thanksgiving spirit of being thankful and wanted to give to others. It brings her joy to see other people happy and enjoys giving gifts. She does a lot of community outreach with her home school’s cheerleading team. She tried her best to get as much as she could from the list of things that could be donated by the school. She got things for everyone she could, men women and children. She said she donated an estimate of eighty items. 

Doesn’t that just sound like the Christmas that is so known and loved? Well sometimes children and others are faced with heart breaking situations and mountains to overcome in their lives. The homeless population has risen 15% between 2019 and 2020. This is becoming a severe problem because out in the weather there is no place for a person to live day in and day out. When homelessness is spoken of that is what’s thought of. People outside on streets doing everything they can for survival. Let us shift gears and think about the parents, siblings and kids going from motel rooms to cars or staying with friends and family, not knowing where they will be sleeping that night or how they will eat. This population of homeless people includes teenagers and children. There has been a 37% increase in homelessness among teenagers since 2013. When asking a Lenape Senior, Jean Zimmerman said that she decided to donate to the homeless because she feels for them and understands what they are enduring from her own individual experiences. She said that she donated hygiene products and what she could to help them stay warm during the cold months. 

Lenape acts in doing their part and leaving their mark on the world by helping provide items that are a need for all people by donating yearly. In previous years, Lenape Technical School held a donation event where people could donate a book bag with all the necessary and helpful items to the ones in need. That could consist of school and hygiene items. This year, Lenape Technical School is holding donations for seasonal wear in December to give shelter to the homeless so that everyone has a chance of a warm and comfortable holiday season. These items included garments, bedding items, seasonal wear, and hygienic products. Everyone at Lenape can donate to their own Leasher. To give the Tech students motivation to help and donate, the school holds shop competitions between the trades. Whoever donates the most between all trades gets a prize. This year our winners are the Cosmetology Trade and the total donations school wide are up to Six Hundred and Six donations and rising. The Cosmetology class is rewarded with a pizza party for their act of kindness and support to the homeless community. The shops enjoy working together and it is an enjoyable time for all. Take a moment and see how holiday cheer and kindness can be spread in life. Remember a little kindness always goes a long way.