10th grader Caleigh Mcclarnon and fellow Leo Club member brought the Tree Topper Drive to life at Papillion La-vista South High School. Starting at the beginning of November and open until November 26th. English teacher, Jackie Bass, would be accepting donations of ‘Tree Toppers’ into classroom DO6. These Tree Toppers would soon turn into Christmas kits for children in need of Christmas spirit. Some of the children in need would include 7 Omaha elementary schools, two schools in Council Bluffs, the Lydia house, and Rainbow house.
“So we call school counselors, it was mostly elementary schools, but we’ve gone to high schools and, the Lydia House and stuff like that now. But we call counselors of schools, or they reach out to us, and they tell us who’s in these trees, and we deliver them to the office” Mcclarnon states.
Not only stopping at Tree Topper donations from students and staff, Angie Heddinger Slaughter the organizer and founder of the drive, came up with other ways to allow those who wanted to help, to be able to. Creating a Venmo, and Go-FundMe, donations continue to rise. Even though it may be over for this year, the Go-FundMe continues to stay open for 2025.
Mcclarnon says “We had a goal of 5,000, and now it’s 8,000, so we’re going to put that into next year, and if we got any extra donations, we would just put that aside for next year, too.”
Angie’s main purpose for this was to help those who needed it. Angie grew up seeing many kids experience not having Christmas, if she could change it she would for as many people as she can.
“She saw kids around her that didn’t have trees too, And she started to see how it was affecting us too, like our community. So she decided that she wanted to change it.” Mcclarnon said.
