Marion County Technical Center students donate gifts for needy families
Dec. 18—FAIRMONT — Students at the Marion County Technical Center learned the value of giving back by helping pack donations at the Future Farmers for Families project.
The donations will go to families who may struggle to put gifts under the tree at Christmas.
"So basically, we help donate and collect toys for kids who are less fortunate and don't get to have Christmas," Brooke Toothman, a student at the technical center, said. "We're just trying to bring happiness to a family, trying to help out."
Katelyn Hoy, another student, said the work they do helps kids who are in nontraditional families. John Postlethwait, who teaches agriculture at the school, said the types of families his students help out might face challenges putting on Christmas because of sudden circumstances that are difficult to plan or prepare for.
The goal of Future Farmers for Families is to help take some of that stress away and still find a way to help caretakers provide the magic of Christmas.
"For whatever reason, somebody couldn't quite fill the bill," Postlethwait said. "So the grandparents, aunt and uncle step in there. They weren't expecting to step in. So this eases their transition back into that roll of being parents again, even though they had no plan to do it."
Future Farmers for Families is modeled after the Salvation Army's Angel Tree program, which is structured so that parents or caretakers give their child's name to a Salvation Army representative, as well as age and gender information.
The representative then matches the child to a clothing or toy item, which the parent or caretaker then picks up to make their own Christmas distribution plans with. The tech center version is an offshoot of the program at the Tractor Supply store run by Sean Sissler, who runs his own program called Tractors for Tots.
This is the second year that the students at the tech center have pulled together to provide donations for needy families. Postlethwait is more than impressed with the hard work and dedication that students like Toothman and Hoy have brought to serving their community. His students brought in so many donations that the beneficiaries of the project might get five or six items this year per kid, according to Postlethwait. The students also did the wrapping as well.
Postlethwait said Future Farmers for Families is a service organization, with specific goals in mind.
"So our goal is to help teach these students how to be good leaders," he said. "And to me there's some servitude involved in that. You need to be willing to help out the fellow man. Some of these kids forget that, or they don't get the chance to do that a lot. I don't know if it's this generation's mentality. Luckily my kids have stepped up to that task."
Toothman and Hoy also sought to bring in new freshmen to help. Olivia Prickett was one of the freshmen who joined the project.
"Postlethwait mentioned it in class a bunch, that we should stay and try to donate for the kids," Prickett said. "We got involved and decided to stay and it was actually pretty cool."
She and the other students hope the project continues into the future.
Tricia Maxwell, attendance director of Marion County Schools, also works as a coordinator for one of the main beneficiaries of the project. The Times West Virginian is withholding the name of her organization due to concern it could spoil any holiday surprises. Her organization is best described as an aid agency dedicated to helping underserved families.
Maxwell has seen first hand the benefits of the work the tech center students has on the recipients of her work. Families are grateful for the extra support. The work the students do has real positive consequences, especially for families that might be dealing with difficult circumstances. She said West Virginia is one of the top states in the U.S. for families that are raising grandchildren.
Marion County itself is in the Top 10 of counties in West Virginia for that statistic.
"The FFA members are learning a great deal as well, to put themselves aside and give in the spirit of someone else, something bigger than themselves," Maxwell said. "It's teaching them a great lesson as well. They feel the gratitude they would feel for being able to support underserved families and that's why they do it. I meet with them once a year, but I can see their excitement and gratitude, and they are thankful to be a part of this."
Reach Esteban at efernandez@timeswv.com
