Mona Shield Payne / Special to the Home News
Nicole Gutierrez, 5, looks over her shoulder after emptying a bag of toys in a hallway before classes began at Edna F. Hinman Elementary School. The school collected 450 stuffed animals to be given to children in need or in the hospital during the holidays as part of the students’ stuffed animal drive.
Thursday, Dec. 18, 2008 | midnight
While walking through the hallways at Edna F. Hinman Elementary School, Austin Martin, 6, admires the 450 stuffed animals he and his classmates collected to give to children in need or in the hospital as part of the school's stuffed animal drive.
Before the school bell rings at Edna F. Hinman Elementary School, third grader Katlin Hawes places a leprechaun among the other stuffed animals to be donated to children in need or in the hospital.
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At Edna F. Hinman Elementary School, students have learned what 450 stuffed animals can look like. A line of them trails down one hall on both sides of the wall and curves around the corner before reaching an end.
They take a particular pride in seeing those 450 stuffed animals, because nearly every student contributed to the collection.
Before the winter break, students were asked to bring in a stuffed animal, either one they had loved or a brand-new one.
The plush toys were collected at a school that is normally at the receiving end of charitable drives, and Assistant Principal Cliff Kehoe distributes them to hospitals, Goodwill, The Salvation Army, Red Cross, nursing homes or anywhere else he can find someone in need.
"They're learning to give up something they've loved a while," he said. "As much as they need it, they've learned there's someone out there who needs it more."
This is the third year the students have participated, and the pile has grown from 150 the first year to more than 450 this year.
"It's good that our school is helping," Maria Gomez, 11, said.
Maria said she wasn't able to bring in a toy this year, but she had before.
Some of the stuffed animals go to children with terminal illnesses, such as cancer patients, Kehoe said. For those children, the stuffed animals have to be new with tags.
"It's nice that the people with cancer can have something to play with," Marc Leyva, 11, said. "They can't have their mom with them all the time to cheer them up."
This isn't the first time students at Hinman have worked to help other people.
After a free school facelift, which included new paint and extra clean playground equipment, students were asked to "pay it forward," Principal Ann Angulo said. To do that, the children have participated in a canned food drive, a Chili Cook Off that helped feed area families, and a fundraiser to help animals hurt in Texas during hurricane season.
While the school was busy collecting stuffed animals in the weeks leading up to winter break, the kindergartners had another agenda: the Kindergarten Card Company.
Santa, snowmen and gingerbread men are only a few of the cards children made, in colors of red, green and white.
They don't spend much class time on making the cards, Kehoe said. They're done at the end of lessons, when the young children have been worn out from a long day at school.
"They just come back to life," he said.
Christian Johnson, 5, said she makes about two cards a day.
The parents are usually the ones that purchase the cards, Kehoe said, but sometimes other community members will hear about them and purchase cards, as well.
This program has also been going on for three years, and the funds go to an end-of-the-year field trip.
That's not what Christian thinks about, though. She's just excited to decorate the cards.
"I like the way we can color them," she said. "I think they're cute."
Frances Vanderploeg can be reached at 990-2660 or [email protected].
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