Holiday Store address needs by going online

CHENEY — Thanks to some online ingenuity and extra donations, a holiday tradition continued this season for local low-income students and families.

The Cheney Middle School Holiday Store has been a fixture since founder Sherry Syrie asked her sixth, seventh and eighth-grade art students in 2011 to bring in new and like-new items to be regifted to students in need. The response was so great that Syrie went on to work with middle school staff and community members to make the store an annual fixture — something that this year faced uncertainty due to COVID-19 health restrictions such as social distancing.

“We almost didn’t do it due to coronavirus’s impact,” Syrie said. “We just couldn’t think of a way to do this without putting people over the edge (of safety).”

But then Syrie began receiving inquiries from local organizations interested in making monetary donations for the store. She went to CMS Principal Mike Stark, who told her that if she got the donations, he and others would get a team together make the store happen in an online format.

Syrie received a $500 donation from the Cheney Centennial Lions Club, which is a new donor. She then contacted the Cheney Firefighters Benevolence Fund and Cheney Police who said they wanted to donate again – and did so to the tune of $2,000.

An anonymous individual who regularly helps out at the store by wrapping gifts and assisting students with their selections donated $500 – bringing the total to an all-time high of $3,000.

“He (the private donor) believe so much in the store that he wanted to write his own check,” Syrie said. “It’s kind of his way of still doing that.”

Syrie teamed with CMS Community in Schools coordinator Nicole Herrera to organize this year’s store. In the past, counselors would identify 80-150 students to invite to participate in the Holiday Store, distributing $40 – $50 in “Santa Bucks” to each student, who would then come to the store — with anywhere between 60 – 130 showing up — to select between 3 – 5 gifts for family members and wrap those gifts with the help of volunteers that include members of local fire and police departments.

This year instead of contacting students, Herrera developed an online form that was sent to the moms in families identified as being in the most need of help. The moms filled out the forms, provided a “wish list” of affordable gifts and returned them to Herrera, who along with other volunteers did the online ordering.

And gifts weren’t the only needs addressed. Herrera also worked with community organizations to help out families not only in the middle school but throughout the district needing clothing, food and even utility bill help.

“CMS coordinated with local elementary schools and even the high school to see what families needed extra support this holiday,” Herrera said. “Families were gifted Christmas gifts for all the kiddos in their household as well as helped with food and basic needs.”

Herrera provided several examples of these families, including one with five children without proper winter clothing and another where the mother recently had her car stolen and was forced to use the money saved for Christmas gifts on another car that ended up not being drivable. The latter also took in a niece who has a nine-month-old baby who would’ve otherwise been homeless.

All told, 40 families received holiday assistance through the CMS Holiday Store in a school district where according to the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction’s “Report Card,” 51.1 % of students come from low-income households.

Syrie said gifts were ordered to arrive before Christmas. If not, Herrera made sure of this by ordering and making deliveries herself, leaving packages on doorsteps and waiting to make sure they were picked up.

“It’s important for kids to have a Christmas gift on Christmas morning,” Syrie said, adding that as a child, she came from a low-income family and experienced a lot of the needs students face today — but without the resources to help.

“There was no clothing closet for me,” she said.

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].