BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE staff and students of the Maurice Hillier Memorial Junior School gave back to their community on Monday (Dec. 7) with their distribution of Christmas gift baskets to several of the less fortunate.
Speaking to SKNVibes, school Principal Icilma Springer said each gift basket contained various foodstuffs and toiletries. She revealed the inspiration behind the charitable activity, as well as the school’s process of collecting items to fill the baskets.
“We asked each parent to send one item so we could make a contribution to the less fortunate persons in our community. There are some persons who will look out for our school – if anything is happening in the yard that shouldn’t be, they will alert us,” she stated.
“This is a good gesture to say thank you and to remind them of what Christmas means. Christmas means giving. The more we give, the more we get. That is what we are trying to instil in our students.”
The annual activity is in its fourth year, and due to the “overwhelmingly favourable” response, Springer noted that a similar distribution had been done in Easter of this year.
“The recipients have been so touched and pleased by our gifts that we decided to begin doing the handouts twice each year, during Easter and Christmas. We distributed 25 at Easter and we have the same number here now. The participation by parents is better than we expected, considering the global economic downturn.”
In addition to the generous endeavour, the school has a number of other activities planned in celebration of the yuletide season. Its annual Christmas programme will be held at the Basseterre High School this evening (Dec. 9), and throughout next week students will sing Christmas carols throughout the community.
