UMSD K-Kids and Key Club Help Stuff Holiday Cheer

On Dec. 19, students from the Upper Moreland School District’s and worked together to fill 500 stockings with toys for children in need of some holiday cheer throughout the Delaware Valley.

For the last 10 years, the students have participated in the “Stockings for Kids Holiday Stocking Stuffer Program.”

According to www.b101radio.com, the stocking-stuffer event was started in 1996. Since then, through a continuing multi-organization partnership, schools in the Greater Philadelphia region have helped the Salvation Army distribute millions of dollars in toys and donations.

In Upper Moreland, the event is led by the district’s Kiwanis of Old York Road student organizations, namely the Intermediate School’s K-Club and the High School’s .

This year, the Middle School’s Builders Club participated in a winter clothing drive.

“I’m glad we got this much,” Kayla Mruk, fifth-grade Intermediate School student said. “There’s so many things, I’m really proud of it.”

Kayla, who is the president of K-Kids explained that Intermediate School students led a campaign, beginning in November, asking for donations for the stocking-stuffer event.

The list was sent home in a letter to parents for consideration, and asked for toys for children of various ages, which were also later separated by gender. The letter suggested that items not exceed  $15 - $20 in value.

Such items included:

• Educational Toys
• DVDs
• Paint Sets
• Electronic games

The donated items were then brought to a room next to the Intermediate School’s cafeteria, where they quickly covered several long tables. The K-Kids and Key Club students  divided the donations into appropriate age and gender piles, and stuffed them in long, red, mesh-stockings. 

The letter also described the entire process of the event as a service-learning project for the students.

“It’s because all these kids are coming together as a team and helping to get all these toys to kids who need them,” Kayla said.

Upper Moreland High School (UMHS) Key Club students worked-side-by-side with their Intermediate School counter-parts, while simultaneously delegating tasks and providing leadership throughout the stocking-stuffing process.

“We’re all working together and learning to help and serve,” , UMHS senior and co-president of the Key-Club said.

According to Joyce, Key Club students also held a donation campaign at the high school. But, instead of asking their parents for the donations, Joyce said that the school’s 200 Key-Club members encouraged their friends to donate, as well as purchased the gifts themselves.

“We usually get a lot,” Joyce said. “It really means a lot to the kids.”

In all, Upper Moreland students were able to fill approximately 500 stockings this year, with several more boxes of donations that couldn’t be fitted into the stockings. The donated items were then sent over to the Mercedes-Benz of Fort Washington for distribution.

, Key Club co-advisor, said that 500 stockings has been the average number of filled stockings every year.

“The nice part is that the high school students remember doing this as K-Kids,” Cohen said.

According to Cohen, Upper Moreland School Distirct was one of the very first schools to continually participate with the stocking-stuffer event. He adds that such events are important to the overall education of the participating students.

“This is part of our character education that we teach them all throughout the district,” Cohen said.

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The “Stockings for Kids Holiday Stocking Stuffer Program”  event is sponsored by the Salvation Army, B-101, 10 NBC, & Boscov’s and the .