Operation Santa Claus 2024

If all I can give is hope…

This is my 14th year teaching, and it’s the first year both of my boys have been in school (9th grade and kindergarten). It’s been a new adventure, but illness has swept through our house since early September. I’ve had Covid, the flu, and some recent virus that has collectively had me sick and out of work for over three weeks so far this school year. Both my boys have been sick even more.

Last year, we almost lost Micah in December due to the flu and severe pneumonia that struck him at the same time, which almost made me have to cancel the Christmas project I do every year, as we were in this children’s hospital for two weeks.

So it’s been a long year since then. Now, just looking out in the world, things seem so uncertain, I feel a heaviness inside, and have watched my mental health suffer for months now.

As a teacher, the weight of the world is so much more evident as we interact with the future every day when we work with our students. We have the remarkable privilege of cultivating potential and self-worth at such early ages, and being afforded a chance to inspire and encourage young people to discovery who they truly are and believe in their unique gifts for which they bring into the world. No one told me how to handle watching those little lights start to dim, as they feel nothing matters or don’t believe they can make a difference anymore. I got prepared on the job for picking up pieces of a child’s heart that society has broken, trying fill the gaps with all the love in my own heart, but lately, I just haven’t felt like it’ll ever be enough.

Recently I’ve had kids cry to me, scared they’ll lose their family when they already left a country that was in civil unrest. I had a student mourning the lost of a cousin who was killed at only 17, and still trying to complete his English homework because he didn’t want his mom to worry about his grades on top of losing her nephew. I have a student who just lost her dad two weeks ago and comes to school because home hurts too bad right now. Two students who spent the first two weeks of school in mental health facilities but now have straight A’s because decided they didn’t want to give up, yet are fighting every day to not be discouraged with the events in the world. I have a group of students who come see me everyday who are stressed juggling jobs to help their families with bills but still found time to make me cards for my birthday or to wish me well, when I’ve been out. Every day I carry all of this in my head and heart when I walk to through halls as a teacher.

My closest friends are teachers too. And I watch them bring breakfast for kids who never eat, or remember their favorite candy and make them birthday goodie bags when we all know it’ll be the only celebration they may get. In elementary school I’ve heard stories of so many kids who don’t have the right size shoes or jackets, and seen teachers take off their shoes right in the hall, to see if they fit the child, offering to meet their needs with what they have right where they are. They wait them then for hours after school when the bus to the group home forgets them. Or advocate to DSS when neglect and abuse are suspected. We have students with terminal illnesses, who won’t live to the end of the school year, and some students who don’t have a permanent home to go to each day, and we just….carry it. Trying to fill spaces with love, and look kids in the eyes and tell them how amazing they are, when the world is conditioning them through circumstance to believe differently. If I’m being honest, it all felt so heavy this year I didn’t know if I could take on the task of Operation Santa Claus.

But I sat with God for a few days, silently, and I realized that need isn’t going anywhere, and if all I can give is hope, then maybe right now, it’s enough.

Operation Santa Claus is a project that gives a Christmas gift to over 2,500 children in low income schools; schools where the stories I just told come from. It touches elementary students and high school students, but it’s so much bigger than giving presents, because this huge community service project is really, a gift of hope.

When the world seems so big, and through the eyes of a child, they are searching for a sign that there’s still goodness, still something to look forward to, to hope for, this project that comes every year, is just a small reminder of the promise that better days will come. I don’t have all the answers or resources to meet the full needs of these children, I’m just one teacher. But I CAN continue to create a memory for children that shows them they matter, that through giving we can find joy, and there’s always a reason to have HOPE. That we must never give up our belief in a better tomorrow, even if today is hard.

The future depends on what we decide is important today. For me, protecting the hope of children is a value of mine. My own life’s testimony has shown the importance of that.

Love is always the right answer, with light is the only way, and hope is the anchor we need for the journey.

So if you’re willing and able, please donate to our project this year, and help us join together for something good, to be able to give these children a great Christmas memory that is a stark contrast to their challenges, and an opportunity for all of us to serve our community. We don’t have to wait for better days to show kids they’re worth our love now, and we can work to make the day better now, with help and support and each other.