The Immanuel Cancer Fighters Relay for Life team conducts fundraisers year-round to support the American Cancer Society.
This Christmas, they decided it was time to give back.
Immanuel Lutheran School sixth-graders Abigail Knollman and Lauren Bode spearheaded a toy drive to provide Christmas gifts to boys and girls at Riley Hospital for Children at Indiana University Health in Indianapolis.
"I thought about how we’re cancer fighters and there’s a lot of people with cancer at Riley, and so I thought we could give them a lot of toys since they are going to be there for a while," Knollman said.
Bode helped Knollman set up the drive, which involved making posters and hanging them around the Seymour school and also placing boxes outside every classroom and one big box in a hallway.
The idea originated in October, the posters and boxes were placed in November and the drive ended this month. Students in grades 1 through 8 participated, and staff members donated, too.
While they didn’t count the items they received, the team wound up with several boxes to send up to Riley.
New toys could be donated, but they couldn’t be made of latex or have glitter on them. Books and art supplies also were accepted.
"We just wanted to bring in as many as we could," Knollman said of their goal. "I thought it was a lot more than I expected. I didn’t expect people to give that much."
Charlie Smith, a teacher at the school and leader of the Immanuel Cancer Fighters, said one of his former students who is a nurse at Riley is helping them get the toys to the kids.
"She said they usually do Christmas for the kids in December," he said. "We have until (this) week to get it up there so they can sort through everything and pass stuff out for the kids."
Even though the Immanuel students won’t be there when the kids receive the gifts, they can’t help but think of their reactions.
"It’s something they know people care about them and also that they have something to do when they are laying in bed instead of worrying or focusing on that," Knollman said.
"I hope they realize that people are spending the time to collect things," Bode said. "There are people with them who want to help them, not just them by themselves."
The girls also feel they and the other Immanuel students got a lot out of the project.
"They realize they helped people and also to know that there are other people out there who don’t have things and you were able to give them something," Knollman said.
Smith said he appreciates Knollman and Bode for spearheading the collection and the students and staff for coming together to support Riley.
"They came up with the idea of, ‘Hey, there are people who just need help.’ I thought it was pretty amazing," he said. "We’ve never done it, so I didn’t know what to expect from it. I was as impressed as they were with the amount of stuff they brought in the boxes. They decided where to put everything. We advertised just through the school and saw the results, so I was impressed just in over a month what was brought in."
Smith said he hopes it encourages the students to think of other ways they can help, either through a group or an individual effort.
"I think this will probably become an annual event, too," he said. "We will keep doing this around Christmas."