Each year, the Student Council puts on the Kapco Kids2Kids Christmas Toy Drive for kids in need of gifts during the holiday season. On Dec. 1, Homestead and other schools in Ozaukee County began raising money and collecting toys for the toy drive. Students and staff had the opportunity to donate money or toys during this holiday season for less fortunate children. Student Council has been donating for the past 14 years, and COVID-19 did not stop them this year.

Since COVID-19 took away many of the other strategies for raising donation money, the Student Council did its best to create new ways to get students and staff to donate money safely.

“Miracle Minute was super different this year because of covid. We had to make arrangements for both in-person and online students. We had great success for the in-person kids with the traditional, run around the school, and collect money. The online version, on infinite campus, was also a great success because not only did we get students to help donate, we also got to notify parents about the donations and hoped for them to donate as well,” Thailyr Perez, senior and media director for student council, said.

With the money raised from the Miracle Minute for the in-person students, the school was able to collect a total of about $300 in a matter of minutes. The Student Council used the money to buy more toys.

“We were able to go to Target and shop for toys for kids who are less fortunate, which we donated to the Kapco toy drive that day. They have an incredible donation system within their light show where we were able to drop off two carfuls of toys,” Andrea Schwalbach, senior and student council member, said.

Additionally, the Student Council was able to create another new way of donating toys safely during the pandemic. Families were able to donate toys by being socially distant and staying in their cars for a drive-through toy donation drop off.

“We had drop off days from Monday through Wednesday where students, staff, and the community could drop off toys after school. Where we stood outside of door 45 and collected with a box and a sign in the parking lot of Homestead,” Schwalbach said.

Although the pandemic is still raging throughout the country, this did not stop the donations from coming in this year. The different methods created this year seemed to generate a good amount of money and toys from people around the community. In fact, Dawn Pfaff, student council adviser said, “This year’s drive was a fantastic success. We collected more money than last year despite the current economic status and there were plenty of toy donations in guidance too.”

“Nothing surprises me at HHS. Our community is so generous and kind, I am proud of the work we do.” Pfaff said,