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Menu includes helping needy
Photo
Shelly Chine
Cafeteria workers continue tradition
By Kristine Gill
AUSTINTOWN
Cafeteria workers at Austintown Middle School don’t want to exchange gifts anymore — but not because they don’t like one another.
“There are so many kids who don’t have anything, and everyone does all these exchanges,” said cafeteria manager Shelley Chine.
So for the past three years, the 14 women along with four other AMS staff members instead have adopted Austintown families in need.
“It’s exciting to wake up Christmas morning and know another family has a Christmas too,” Chine added.
On Friday, several cafeteria workers shopped at Austintown Plaza to grab some last-minute items on the wish lists for two families adopted this year.
“These are really nice shoes,” Darlene Wiery said, grabbing a box along the back wall at J.C. Penney.
“I think that’s too small,” Chine said of another pair before grabbing the winning box.
“I like this; do you guys like this?” she asked.
Surprisingly, all eight women did.
“It’s easy to agree when it’s a good cause,” Debbie Pratt said after everyone had sorted through the options for about 15 minutes.
Chine kept the pile of about $600 worth of gifts in a back room of the cafeteria, safe from prying eyes of AMS students. In addition to the gifts, each cafeteria worker baked cookies for the two families.
Each child will receive a box of gently worn, donated clothing.
Chine said the new tradition has been more rewarding than the exchanges among coworkers.
“You just don’t realize how bad people have it,” she said of the families. “I just wish so many more people would do this.”