New Holland-Middletown School supports local families through free Christmas store for parents

[December 23, 2017] 

LINCOLN

This past weekend, New Holland-Middletown Elementary school was able to provide a better Christmas for about 15 students. Thanks to a $1,000 grant from the Illinois Education Association, the school offered it's free Christmas store to parents for the second year in a row. The grant was also matched by the New Holland-Middletown Community Supports Education Group. Additional donations were provided by Rochester Christian Church (Rochester, IL) and Alpha Phi Omega - Eta Sigma at Illinois College in Jacksonville, IL.

Parents were able to come in and shop and pick out their own gifts for their children with no questions asked. Each child who was shopped for will receive a complete outfit, a stocking full of snacks, a blanket, a hygiene kit, two books and three toys for Christmas.

Darcy O'Connor, member of the New Holland-Middletown Education Association, applied for the grant as part of the IEA’s Schools and Community Outreach by Educators program, which provides grants earned by educators in the first 10 years of their career for money for a service project.

"We love being able to help make Christmas a little less stressful for families, and it is such a blessing to be able to offer a way for parents to do their own shopping without that financial stress," O'Connor said.

O'Connor works as a teacher at New Holland-Middletown. She has been employed in this position for four years during which time she has been awarded recognition by the Illinois Dept of Public Health as Illinois Volunteer of the Week during Serve Illinois, as well as being nominated for the Illinois Computing Educators Educator of the Year.

NH-M Superintendent Todd Dugan praised Darcy’s dedication, as well as the professional support from the IEA-NEA, stating that “as more research points to the importance of meeting students’ social and emotional needs, it is extremely gratifying to see professional educators engaging in community service, especially during the season of giving.”

More than 50 grants were awarded for 2017-18 to educators’ projects across the state. Educators’ application ideas were creative, varied and were based both inside and outside schools. All of them benefitted students, students’ families and the community.

Volunteer trips, food pantries, plans to get parents involved in schools, increased access to supplies and community service projects were just some of the ideas that were funded.

“We’re thrilled another year of this wonderful program resulted in a range of ideas submitted by our members and we are so pleased with such creative effort,” said IEA President Kathi Griffin.

“We know that our educators are in the schools every day giving 100 percent, but there are unmet needs as well. So many of them wanted to do more. It’s in their nature. We were glad to help them make their ideas come to fruition.”

The IEA represents more than 130,000 members, including teachers, education support professionals, higher education faculty and staff, retired educators and students planning to become teachers.

[Todd Dugan
Superintendent
New Holland-Middletown Elementary School District 88]