Rayen Early College Middle School kids bring Christmas gifts home for families

YOUNGSTOWN

It started with a bag of clothes for charity and grew into enough donations to allow every Rayen Early College Middle School student to bring Christmas gifts home for their families.

Several years ago, Maureen Donofrio, a math teacher at REC, brought a bag of clothes to school, planning to take it to Goodwill.

"I told the kids, 'Why don't you look over them over and see if there's anything you want,'" she said.

As the students looked through the clothes, Donofrio heard them talking about how a particular item would be a good gift for a family member.

The next year, she asked some of her teacher colleagues and they brought items in for the students. The effort grew every year with more and more people contributing.

"This year I put it on Facebook," Donofrio said.

That generated enough items to allow every REC student -- there are nearly 200 -- to select 15 items each for friends and family. About 100 people contributed items for the effort.

"All kinds of people donated," the teacher said. "People shared it on Facebook. People who didn't even know the students donated."

The students were more excited to find gifts for others than if the gifts had been for themselves, she said.

Some people donated money and gift cards.

Those items went to a few students whose families are struggling this holiday season.

Donofrio hopes the initiative continues to grow each year.

"It keeps getting bigger and better," she said, adding that she'd like to see if expand to other schools and maybe even the whole school district.