Stockbridge Valley Central School community baskets bring cheer to Munnsville neighbors
Christmas came early Dec. 21 as Stockbridge Valley Central School students delivered their annual community baskets to area residents, giving them gifts of fruit and cookies wrapped in a reminder that someone is thinking of them during the holiday season.
The outreach project is a true group effort - Erin Smith's agriculture students created the baskets; the school’s FFA chapter donated oranges, tangerines, apples and grapefruit; and Jerry DeBraccio's family and consumer science classes baked more than 450 cookies.
DeBraccio said they worked for the previous two weeks to prepare the treats for the baskets. There were three separate deliveries made Dec. 21, two by school bus and one by van for areas where it was unsafe to take a bus, Smith said. Some 40 students, along with Smith and DeBraccio, made 28 stops with their care packages.
The first delivery on their second trip was an extra special one. Smith and six of her Agriculture Production students visited the Munnsville home of Ray Lighthall, the former SVCS ag teacher who created the community baskets project with then-home economics teacher Ann Pearson back in the mid-1980s.
Lighthall was all smiles when the students arrived unannounced at his door and told them about the early days when he and Pearson took their own students out to deliver their baskets.
He said one year a group of the students were spotted out in the neighborhood during school hours and reported as possible truants. Another time a student was chased from a house by a dog and escaped by jumping clear over a fence. And a delivery up a steep wintry hill was once quite a challenge, as the bus wheels were going forward yet the bus kept sliding backwards down the hill.
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Lighthall said the community baskets project was actually created to give the students something constructive to do with their pre-vacation time in school.
"We were tired of the kids not doing anything and being all sugared up on the last day of school before the Christmas break," Lighthall intimated. "We came up with this to give them something to do for their community with that time."
Smith said the baskets were delivered to local folks who might be homebound, lost a loved one recently, are not feeling well or simply can use a picker-upper around the holidays. They are suggested by staff, students and community members.
"This is really about providing them with some holiday cheer and reminding them that someone is thinking of them," Smith said.
"It's great for the kids — it gives them an awesome community service project and some great interaction with their community," DeBraccio added.
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The students were glad to be able to leave their classes and visit their Munnsville area neighbors with their gifts.
“It’s very nice to see how happy the community gets when you get to the door," said SVCS ninth-grader Braden Renner. "It helps people in need who maybe can’t get out sometimes or just enjoy getting gifts in their home.”
“The one thing I like most about doing the community baskets is seeing the joy of the people’s faces when we show up to their houses with a handmade basket full of cookies and fruit," added 10th-grader Madison Nolley. "It feels really good to give back to our community members who have give us so much. This is my first year actually participating in the baskets and I can not wait to do it again next year."
Mike Jaquays is the community news reporter for the Mid-York Weekly. Email him at mjaquays@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Observer-Dispatch: Stockbridge Valley Central School baskets bring cheer to neighbors
