Leadership Students Serve Up Holiday Help
Leadership students from Osbourn High School are familiar with doing good work as many of the students within the class participate in various clubs and community organizations throughout the year. However, that didn’t stop these students from serving more than 500 children with cancer and their families during “Do Good December.”
Under the direction of teacher Robin Albrecht, Leadership students traveled to Richmond recently to participate in a holiday party for oncology patients. The holiday party is an annual event for ASK, a childhood cancer foundation serving Central Virginia’s pediatric oncology patients and their families.
Each year, ASK hosts a holiday party where the children can enjoy family-fun activities and games, as well as a visit with Santa.
“At the ASK holiday party, children scurried through the hotel excitedly getting their faces painted, making crafts, and doing other holiday activities,” Albrecht said. “But, the biggest highlight for many of the little ones and their families was being able to take photos with Santa Claus.”
During the event, Leadership students hosted four tables of crafts they had prepared in the weeks leading up to the event. With help from the Leadership students, children and their families were given the opportunity to decorate a tree with finger paints, decorate a gingerbread man card, make a reindeer ornament and color holiday-related coloring pages. The Leadership class also helped children prepare letters to Santa.
“Our class was enlightened by the experience,” Albrecht said. “Many of us had not had the opportunity to contribute to such a large event. In addition, many of us had never had interactions with a child going through cancer. It was a humbling experience to make great memories with these children and their families.”
Do Good December is an initiative founded by the Chick-fil-A Leadership Academy, which is a national program for high schools that promotes “impact through action.” Volunteering at ASK’s holiday party was the project chosen by Albrecht’s Leadership class for the month. The students’ involvement in the academy is sponsored by local Chick-fil-A owner and operator George Snyder of Chick-fil-A Signal Hill.