December 15, 2004

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Palo Alto Online

Working wonders

by Sue Dremann

At Walter Hays Elementary School, nearly 40 youngsters don red and white hats and sacrifice recess time to decorate 100 felt stockings

It's not a holiday-related art project to decorate the school. Through an independent nonprofit program called Working Wonders (WOW), the first- through third-graders are creating the stockings for children who receive a holiday gift through the Urban Ministry's Holiday Toy Store.

Using creativity, time and hands-on experience, Working Wonders is part of a growing movement to teach kids they have the power to effect positive change.

"We believe children should donate their talent, time and treasures," Jean Young, the Walter Hays liaison to Working Wonders.

Young and Anne Moses created Working Wonders after retiring from successful careers in high-tech. They felt blessed by their good fortune and wanted to give back. Wonders has worked with children at Fair Meadow, Duveneck, Nixon, Escondido and Briones. They also hold bi-monthly meetings where families work together to give back to the community. Kids have made cards for veterans, folded hundreds of tiny American flags for soldiers in Iraq, and made meals for the homeless.

"Many people would like to make a difference but don't think they have the time. Everyone wants to do community service. When it's set up, people will drop in and do it," Moses said

Working Wonders complements programs already underfoot in the district. At Walter Hays, the children talk about different personality building concepts through the school district's "Character Trait Program." Classes focus on a different trait -- this month it's empathy and perseverance -- and children read books and listen to speakers related to the topic.

Wonders makes an abstract discussion real with hands-on activities and direct experience with people in need, Carol Piraino, Walter Hays principal, said.

"Students have spontaneously asked if the student council could help the hurricane victims in Florida," she said.

Young has seen the program work for her own children, especially for her son, a fifth-grader at Walter Hays. While searching for gently used toys to donate to Haven House, he scoured the entire home on his own.

The program also has a huge impact in the community. When Working Wonders got involved in Urban Ministry's food drive, it was the biggest in four years, said Brooke Scharnke, Urban Ministry director.

For the toy project, children and parents throughout many of Palo Alto's elementary schools help gather new and gently used toys, decorate stockings to be filled with cookies and other stocking stuffers and make decorations for the festive toy store. And they can donate time doing other service work, such as sorting toys.

Then there's the experiential part of giving: the children and their families can go to the toy store and become elves, guiding the clients through the toy selections and helping with suggestions.

At portable tables in the school's multipurpose room, first-grader Melina Nakos threw herself into her stocking project, adorning it with stick-on gingerbread houses and snowmen. She carefully added little accents, drawing stick arms onto the snowmen and coloring the stocking caps of gingerbread people. Further down the table, a tall blonde girl in an "I Believe in Santa Claus" hat scrawled "U-R the Best" across the top of a stocking.

Piraino beamed. "Look at how enthusiastic they are to decorate something they'll give away."

Dozens of construction paper ornaments, from Christmas trees and snow men to snowflakes were being snipped, colored and decorated with stickers. Many will be added to the red and green paper chain garlands that will decorate First United Methodist Church on Dec. 20 through 22, when the shoppers will arrive.

Moses' blue eyes sparkle as she tries her hand at creating a snowflake. Snipping this way and that, cutting notches out of the folded paper square.

The youngsters at Walter Hays file out as the lunch bell rings. In quick succession, a group of fifth graders take their place at the tables. Young, Moses and parent volunteer Barbara Schroder barely have time to clean up the fallen markers and paper backings strewn on the tables and floor before they arrive.

Staff Writer Sue Dremann can be e-mailed at sdremann@paweekly.com.

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