12 years of Christmas: La Sociedad continues holiday gift drive tradition

La Sociedad Gift Drive gives back this season In honor of the season’s spirit of giving, Samo students from the club La Sociedad have taken it upon themselves to hold a gift drive for those in need in our district. La Sociedad’s tradition of holding a gift drive was started by their founder, Spanish teacher Claudia Bautista, in 2004. Their annual toy drive is a school-wide function that asks each homeroom class to attempt to raise money to buy one present for one child. According to Bautista, they give out over 100 gifts every year.“To do this we talk to the community liaison of each  elementary school in the district, and get lists of their kids on their discounted or free lunches, it usually ranges from 20-30 kids from each school,” Bautista said. “We do McKinley, John Muir, Edison, Grant and Will Rogers, and we end up giving around 120 to 150 gifts. We also cover kids at the toddler center here at Samo.”Currently, Paloma Nicholas (’18) is the student leader of La Sociedad, and has been a part of it since her sophomore year. Because of her position, she is very involved in the process of seeing these gifts delivered, and wants the message of what they're doing to go out to everyone.“The gift drives purpose is to provide toys for children in our district on free or reduced lunch. We ask that each homeroom collect enough money to buy a gift for a child, and we give the teacher the child's ‘wish list’ so that after they have collected the money, they can purchase a toy the child will enjoy,” Nicholas said. “We also ask that people personally ‘adopt a child’ and provide a gift by themselves. They can come talk to us and ask us for a child to buy a toy for, and we give them the child's wish list.” This season, every single child on the list has been adopted. For La Sociedad this is a momentous occasion.“We were able to get everyone adopted because we have a super generous school. Some students adopted a child on their own, and I sent out an email to ask teachers if their homeroom was interested in doing adopting a child,” Bautista said. “My request had many faculty and staff members without homerooms adopting kids on their own. And then, you have ‘angels’ like [Samo teachers] Mr. Aiello, Ms. Snyder and Mr. Jimenez, who helped by adopting six to ten kids each! We have an amazing community!”The year the gift drive was started, 2004, was a hard year financially for people everywhere. Bautista saw this, and after talking about it with her club, her students suggested a gift drive. Over the years, they have not wavered from their goal of bringing happiness to children everywhere, and have expanded the project to accommodate more children.“Back in 2004, a lot of people were in a bad place financially, and when my students heard a about they said ‘hey, why don't we do a gift drive?’ And it just became an everyday thing,” Bautista said. “The whole idea is that if a child doesn't have support at home because they have a hard time financially, the school can help with them. The gifts they ask for tend to be really modest; shoes, toothbrushes. Things you never would imagine someone asking for as a gift because it's so commonplace in regular homes. It's really humbling to have that sort of experience.”Daniel Seizer (‘18) is La Sociedad’s co-leader, and was inspired by the joy of the experience last year to work even harder this year and reach out to more kids.“I’m involved because I think that it's a really enriching experience for everyone: us, the donors and the kids who receive the fits,” Seizer said. “I was able to go with the club to personally deliver the gifts to some Edison students. It was such a nice experience and it inspired me to continue working with La Sociedad to try to serve even more children this year.”Now in her 12th year of working with La Sociedad and their toy drive, Bautista is as excited and elated to give back this year and years to come. “Just yesterday an ex student of mine attending USC also came by to pick up donations for Syrian refugees based in San Diego. We donated three strollers, toys [and] clothes (new and gently used) for the children who just arrived from Syria,” Bautista said. “I feel blessed to be a part of this community, and I am thrilled to see my ex students continuing the tradition at their college communities. This is my 12th year doing this now, and it is the highlight of my winter holidays!”