After spending weeks collecting money for toys, clothing food and more, a group of Adlai Stevenson High School students packed the donations up and distributed them to area agencies so they can be given to children and senior citizens — in time for the holiday.
Stevenson’s annual “Give-A-Thon” assists hundreds of Lake County children and their families, and is nearly a four-decades old tradition for the school located in Lincolnshire.
“I think it’s awesome to see all of the work that the students put in year after year. And I feel like every year, too, they just increase the amount that they’re doing, and there are more students involved … more clubs involved,” said Courtney Zabrin, community service coordinator and head sponsor of the National Honor Society at Stevenson. “This is all run by student leaders.”
The Give-A-Thon is a student project of the National Honor Society and Zabrin has been helping with it for three years. The Give-A-Thon is now in its 39th year.
Throughout November, students fundraised — including holding a student-organized student/teacher pickleball tournament. With the money collected, students shopped for items, with many visiting local retailers, according to organizers.
Then on Nov. 29, it was distribution day and the students helped to load bags of wrapped gifts, baby items and food for delivery onto trucks. Bicycles, all 67 of them and many donning bright bows, were wheeled out of the school for delivery to kids in need.
Food items were taken to the Vernon Township food pantry in Buffalo Grove. Baby items were delivered to PADS Lake County in Vernon Hills. Catholic Charities of Lake County, which has a warehouse in Libertyville, provided household wish lists for gifts. Approximately 300 families were served, resulting in 1,200 children being assisted, organizers explained.
Stevenson seniors Kian Odongo, 17, and Sivank Yagnamurthy, 17, are both executive board members for the National Honor Society and student co-organizers of Give-A-Thon.
“We were able to provide gifts for all these kids who, at this time of year, are not able to get a lot of these because it’s very expensive,” Yagnamurthy said. “They provide a wish list of three gifts that they would like and these kids range from all over. So we also had infant babies that are not even born yet and we’re providing them baby items.”
Yagnamurthy said the charitable event “unites Stevenson and raises the holiday spirit overall.”
Infants to 18-year-olds, as well as seniors age 60 and older, were recipients of the gifts.
“A lot of people really need this,” Odongo said. “One hundred percent, I think I’ll remember this for the rest of my life. Even when I did this last year, it truly influenced me for the rest of my high school career.”
Odongo said this event sparked his passion for service because he gets to see “the real impact that just a small act can have on someone’s entire life.”
Both of the student leaders offered a “giant, enormous thank you” to supporters of Give-A-Thon, including students of all grade levels, faculty, staff and other sponsors and supporters.
The Wednesday students packed up the goods to be transported to the various nonprofit organizations, some had fun riding bikes to the dock where they were loaded onto a truck.
“We’re celebrating early Christmas for families,” said Shaur Sachdeva, a 16-year-old junior. “I love the types of gifts that people were asking for, the winter jackets, the shoes. It just shows how we’re all a big community helping each other.”
Karie Angell Luc is a freelancer.
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