Nearly half a dozen carts overflowing with toys lined Walmart this morning as third-graders from Manor Heights Elementary gave back to the community with their annual Christmas shopping. Each holiday season, the students sell 50/50 raffle tickets to raise money for presents for Casper kids through the Salvation Army Christmas Tree. The students have the opportunity to personally pick out gifts for each child’s card they are given.
This year marks the eleventh shopping endeavor for the school. According to third-grade teacher Alisa Faulkner, the students raised $7,045 this year, enough to shop for over 100 children. The total for all eleven years is an astounding $54,000, benefitting 1,100 kids in the community.
Faulkner touches on how the students can look back on this experience and see how they helped someone even though they were so young.
Students Ava, Bailey, and Paisley were very excited to shop all morning to fulfill the wishes of the kids. Bailey says her favorite part of this was “helping people that don’t have as much stuff” and she mentions that she would definitely do this again.
Another student, Cody Porter, loved that he was able to “help people that don’t get a Christmas” through this event.
