Mr. Benham's Class Contributes to "The Christmas Angels Program"
The purpose of the program is to help supplement the St. Vincent De Paul Adopt-A-Family program. The Christmas Angels Program is designed to give less fortunate parents an opportunity to select two new Christmas gifts for each of their children. This program is especially designed to give parents a sense of dignity and pride in making the Christmas season more joyous and fulfilling for their family.
Families are invited to our Outreach Center in the West End on a Saturday in December. While the parents select two gifts for their children, volunteers help the children make an arts and crafts gift for their parents and receive a bag of candy from Santa. Parents take the gifts home to give to their children on Christmas morning.
Students from Mr. Beham's 8th grade art class created handmade name tags for each of the children's presents this year. Mr. Benham heard about the program and asked his students how they thought they could help. The students were more than excited to create tags for the presents, so Mr. Benham decided to change his typical printmaking project into a project where others could benefit. Mr. Benham said, "The students really enjoyed this project. The best part was that they started to talk about what was really important and started some great dialog in the classroom about giving back to those in need. I was really happy to be a part of this program this year, but I hope that we can do more next year."
The Students used their printmaking skills to create a variety of tags to be used for the children's presents. Each student created 30 tags in different colors, designs and even languages for the program.
You can become a Christmas Angel by donating new toys or a monetary gift to purchase toys for children who would otherwise be forgotten during the holidays. For more information, please contact Maura Carpinello at (513) 562-8841 x 211. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul in Cincinnati is a non-profit organization providing a unique style of personal assistance with food, clothing, medicine, rent, utilities, transportation and companionship to people facing economic, emotional or spiritual crises.
