On Saturday, December 2nd TCS hosted its first Christmas Festival for children to enjoy some holiday fun while raising money for some good causes! The event was a great success with about 50 children and their parents in attendance! The idea for this event originated and was beautifully executed by one of our TCS seniors, Gabrielle Williams. Gabby shared with us about the event and how it came to be.
“My name is Gabrielle Williams, and I am the current president of the Recycle4Hope Chapter at Timothy Christian School. Recycle4Hope is a nonprofit organization started by Jarrett Locke, a Timothy alum, Class of 2014. Their mission is to provide resources to families in under-served communities and individuals who are experiencing homelessness. They want to bring light to dark situations, while simultaneously cleaning up and preserving the environment. We wanted to bring that mission back to TCS and start a student led club.
The Recycle4Hope Club is now in its second year. Last year, we hosted the Alumni Basketball Game. This event was quite a success; we had many alumni come back to play in the game and we raised over $500. In the summer of this year, I started to think about another event we could add for the next school year. We have Homecoming in the fall, and Jr./Sr. Fair in the spring, but in the winter, we only have the Christmas concerts. Thus, the idea for a Christmas Festival was born.
I came up with a plan for how the day would go and showed it to our advisor Miss Wilkinson. She loved the idea! I took the idea of the Christmas Festival to Miss McKay and the Admin team, and they signed off on it. After having everything confirmed I went to my club members, and we planned to have bake sales to raise money to put on the event. There was a lot of love that went into making the things we were selling.
Almost all the decorations for the day were donated by teachers and parents. The Recycle4Hope Club was very blessed to have the help that we did. Some of the members of the club who helped that day were Becca Saleh our vice president, Eden Brooks, Assistant to the President, Emma Marsh, Secretary, and Elizabeth Solomine, Treasurer. These girls were my rock during the planning process. We also had senior, Grace Andersen help with decorations and Valeria Gomez’s mom made big balloon characters which now decorate the main office and building two.
Many TCS families came, and it was great to see our community come out and support our event. The activities that we had were a petting zoo, snacks, crafts, a ping-pong table, cookie decorating, and a photo op area. We also had tacos available for sale from a restaurant, Latin Port, owned by one of our TCS families. Everyone had fun and there were smiles all around.
All the money that we raised went towards the DR accounts of the seniors who helped and donated their time and to the Recycle4Hope organization. I want to thank all of the teachers, parents, and Recycle4Hope club members who helped make the first Christmas Festival a fun filled afternoon!”