By GABRIELLA FINE
Waltham Times Contributing Writer
In 1984 Steve Goodwin sat at his kitchen table with fellow Waltham High School educator Jack Cox. The teachers, along with Goodwin’s wife Marcia, had an idea for a student service project that would bring holiday joy to Waltham children in need.
At Goodwin’s table, Student Santa was born.
The project now has a new home with the opening of the city’s new high school building, and with it a new name – Hawks for the Holidays – but at 41 years old the goals and spirit remain the same.
Waltham High’s student council and its National Honor Society spearhead the project – as they have since its start.
Derek Vandegrift, director of history and social studies, now leads the students, having taken on the role in 2014 following Goodwin’s retirement.
Hawks for the Holidays partners with Waltham charities that support local families year-round. The participating groups provide housing, clothes, food and fuel assistance to those in need.
Hawks for the Holidays organizers receive a list of children, ranging in age from infant to 10 years old. Each child is assigned a randomized code based on age and gender. With a program serving so many children, organization is paramount. Vandegrift said that in 40 years, “the program has never missed a kid on the list.”
Each Waltham High School advisory class “adopts” a different child. While the program isn’t mandatory, every advisory class opts in.
Different clubs and student groups also volunteer, as do some Waltham High alumni.
“The size of the pile matters”
The students pool money as a class, and representatives from each advisory class purchase gifts with the money raised.
“It’s really motivating to encourage people to donate money to kind of visit a bunch of different stores, to see how many presents I can get and make sure they’re as good as possible,” one National Honor Society said.
Vandegrift said he reminds participants that for young children, “the size of the pile matters.” A feeling of abundance is an essential component of the holiday experience.
As they’ve done every year for four decades, Waltham High students will gather on Dec. 19 for an assembly featuring a display of gifts students purchased for all 339 of the “adopted” children.
This year, with the program in a new space, the assembly will be especially exciting.
The assembly features performances from the choral, band and orchestral programs, along with other student performers. Vandegirft said Waltham Mayor Jeannette McCarthy “always comes down and thanks the kids for their effort.”
Another student said her favorite part is “being able to distribute those [gifts] to the families and seeing that all the hard work that we’ve done, you know, for the past three or so weeks, have been to help real people and real families during the holiday season.”
Vandegrift said Hawks for the Holidays is an opportunity for the school community to gather in support of local families and for the organizers “seeing it from a coded list that arrives in November, all the way to the families arriving, often with their children to pick up the gifts, it puts a lot of things in perspective.”
Here are the students’ special podcast episode and ad about Hawks for the Holidays.
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