The holiday season brings out the gift of giving in a lot of people
around the world. At Vern Riffe School (VRS), that giving hits close to home
each year as the school raises money to make sure students have an exceptional
holiday season.
“We are in our eighth year of this program,” said Kim Miller, teacher
assistant at Vern Riffe School. “We started this fundraiser to be able to buy
our students Christmas gifts and to help with Prom and Graduation.”
Vern Riffe School is part of the Scioto County Board of Developmental
Disabilities and provides education to students through the 12th
grade who have developmental disabilities and need focused assistance to help
them learn.
Miller said the idea came when her nephew saw a need to provide
Christmas gifts to the students.
“He suggested that each classroom put together gift baskets and raffle
them off to raise money. That was eight years ago and we are still getting
bigger and more creative,” Miller said.
Each classroom is provided with a starter amount of money to help in
purchasing items for the baskets, but each classroom donates a majority of the
items that are raffled off.
“My dad, Ron Castle, donates $1,000 each year. We take that amount and
divide it up among the classrooms. We have some very good shoppers on staff and
have been able to get items of real value that have brought us a profit of
around $3,000 each year,” said Miller.
Hannah Blackburn, teacher at VRS, said the items in the baskets are a
huge draw.
“We are able to get great deals on some large items, like a Kindle Fire
HD and a 32” flat screen TV to put with other items in each basket,” Blackburn
said.
A total of 11 baskets are available for raffle. Each has a specific
theme such as sports (which contain Bengals tickets); relaxing (which contains
a head to toe body spa and hydro-therapy food massager) and fire (which
contains a Kindle Fire HD, case and several gift cards).
“We do this for our
kids. They mean the world to us and the holiday’s give us an extra chance to
give back to them all the joy they bring us every day,” said Blackburn.
Miller said after the
raffle, each teacher is given $40 to spend on each student.
“We started out eight
years ago only being able to spend $10 per student. We have now raised enough
money each year that every student will get a $40 gift,” said Miller.
The drawing will be
held on Dec. 11. Tickets can be purchased from any Vern Riffe School staff
member or by calling 353-0636. Tickets are $1 each or 6 for $5.