From left, Jia Dugan, Victoria Slabe, Jasmyn Foist, Reanna Reardon and Haylee Morrison.

From left, Jia Dugan, Victoria Slabe, Jasmyn Foist, Reanna Reardon and Haylee Morrison.

Brookfield High School junior Bailey O’Brien approached student council adviser Mary Arp and asked her for a little help.
Bailey and her mom went “wild” at Sam’s Club, and they had more goodies than they could carry into the school, she said.
Arp gave Bailey a wheeled cart, and she and senior Nikole Husnick, both student council members, rolled in boxes of items to be stuffed into stockings and sent to Air Force personnel in Kuwait.
The high school’s cheerleaders and student council members combined on the project to collect donations of snacks and personal care items and send them to overseas military.
Cheerleading adviser Lynn Pegg said she wanted to run a holiday project for her girls that served a community interest, but also gave them something they could write about on scholarship applications that asked about community involvement.
The student council was hindered in performing its own service project because of school distancing guidelines, and the reliance on away-from-school learning made it difficult to bring students together, Arp said. So, when Arp heard what the cheerleaders were doing, she offered the student council’s help, and to pay for shipping using student council funds set aside for service projects.
promoThe students and advisers collected donations from individuals and groups and bought Christmas cards, guardian angel pins, snacks such as candy, cookies, chips and beef jerky sticks, and personal care items such as tissues, disposable razors, shaving cream, soap, shampoo, hand lotion, wipes, lip balm and tooth care items.
“We had some really nice donations from the community,” Arp said.
Members of both groups came together Dec. 7 in the high school gym to write cards, stuff stockings, and pack them into boxes for shipment to a unit in which a member of the school family serves.
“I thought it was nice for all of us to come together,” Bailey said, adding that, although the COVID-19 pandemic has upended school and many traditional holiday activities, “it’s still a merry Christmas.”
Nikole said it is easy to forget about the military personnel serving overseas who have to stay vigilant no matter what day it is. This project lets them know that someone back home is thinking about them, she said.
“I think it’s a pretty great project that we’re doing this year,” Nikole said.
Donors were: Arp, Pegg, John Wilkes, Greta Blake, Tim Taylor, the Atkinson Family, the Monaco Family, Denise Hardway, Pam Furillo, Stacey Filicky, Brady Moracco, Cameron Neely, Jessica Gardner, the Toth Family, Tammy Hanks, Tiffany Brown, Colleen Chesmar, Maddie Thomas, the Reardon Family, the Slabe Family, the Eash Family, the Foist Family, Penn-Ohio Electrical Contractors, Brookfield Rotary Club and Jean Pasacic McKenzie.

From left, Lillie Toth, Reanna Reardon, McKyah Graybill and Zoe Steele pin guardian angels on stockings.

From left, Lillie Toth, Reanna Reardon, McKyah Graybill and Zoe Steele pin guardian angels on stockings.

Nikole Husnick, left, and Bailey O'Brien.

Nikole Husnick, left, and Bailey O’Brien.