 Students from the Elf Club at Benton Middle School load more than $14,000 worth of toys onto the BMS band truck to be taken back to the school and put on display for all the students to see. The toys are given to the Kiwanis Club and are a major part of the Kiwanis Saline County Toy Drive.
All of these items or events are fundraisers conducted by the Elf Club, an organization at BMS that raises money to purchase toys for the Kiwanis Saline County Toy Drive.
Through the students’ efforts this year, they were able to raise $15,000 for toy purchases. This contribution is the largest given to the toy drive each year.
“Their contribution means everything to the toy drive,” said Christina Long, chairperson of the toy drive. “They bring in the bulk of the toys that we distribute every year. Kiwanians do not talk about the toy drive without talking about the Elf Club,” Long added.
The Elf Club started in 1992, the first year the middle school was opened. Students at the school approached Donna Gattin about holding a toy drive. The group was called Toys for Tots and collected $3,000 its first year. In 1994, Yvonne Cates acquired the club and the amount raised eventually grew to $15,000. Eventually, the name changed to Elf Club and now the club is ran by Cindy Haltom and Becky McCormick.
Out of all the fundraising events, the butter braids bring in the most money for the students. This year, the braid sales earned $9,000. Parents also get involved by taking the fundraiser to their work.
But, the turkey feather sale was deemed the most fun by many students. Each class team at the school had a paper turkey that they had to decorate with paper feathers. Feathers cost 25 cents each. This year, the fundraiser became a little competitive and even had some mischief involved.
“One of the teachers... she rolled another teacher’s class because they stole her turkey feathers,” said a member of the Elf Club.
Haltom confessed to the mischief. Her class had it’s feathers stolen by Tammy Parker’s class; therefore, revenge was imminent. Haltom and her class toilet papered Parker’s class.
“But you know, my students will remember that about me for the rest of their lives,” Haltom said.
Despite the mischief, no one loses sight of the real winners in the fundraisers; the children of Saline County. Students in the club enjoy their work with the club, but they know they have a volleyball game and winter dance for a bigger purpose.
“We like helping people,” said seventh grade student Madison Rose.
“And if you were a little child who didn’t toys at Christmas, you’d feel sad,” said seventh grade student Bayleigh Simpson.
Once all of the money is raised, the whole club loads a bus, misses class and heads to the Benton Walmart to purchase the toys for the toy drive. The students are broken into groups and each group is alloted a certain amount of money to spend. To help stay on budget, the students take calculators along on their shopping spree.
At the end of this year’s shopping trip, $14,000 had been spent on toys for the drive. The other $1,000 was donated to various local philanthropic organizations. Following the shopping experience, the toys are loaded onto the BMS band truck and taken back to the school where they are displayed on the stage for everyone to see.
BMS Principal Sue Shults was nearly lost for words when she saw the amount of toys purchased this year.
“Oh, wow,” she said. “It’s unbelievable, I mean, it’s ubelieveable, that middle schoolers can do that. I’m thrilled that our school can be part of the community and work cooperatively with other organizations,” she said.
Through the work with the Elf Club, the students learn an important lesson about giving back to the community. But, the students’ work teaches the adults an important lesson as well.
“I just think that as adults we can learn a lot from them. They ways that they raise their money... there’s no secret recipe. It’s just true compassion and desire to help,” Long said. “They make turkey feathers work. They make cookies work. They use what they have and they put (adults) to shame with what they are able to accomplish. They don’t much have much to work with, but they do so much with it,” she added.
The toys purchased by the Elf Club, along with toys donated through the Toy Trooper drive will be distributed today during the Kiwanis Saline County Toy Distribution in Benton. Kiwanis Club members and their families will help to make Christmas a little brighter for many Saline County children. But, none of this could have been possible without the work of more than 50 BMS students and their parents.
“We could not have done this without the parents allowing the kids to bring money to school,” Haltom said.
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