Community Christian Church

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Feliz Navidad Batavia Fifth Graders Send Gift to a Small School In Mexico

Published December 20, 2005 - The Daily Herald

By: Sammi King

This year, Ellen Stewart's fifth-grade class didn't bury her desk with the usual gifts - "teacher is A+" mugs, ceramic apple paperweights and plates of fudge. Instead, her students at Louise White Elementary School brought pencils, children's books and boxes of school supplies to their holiday party earlier this month. The gifts came about because Stewart agreed to go on a mission trip last summer with Community Christian Church in Naperville. She had no idea that a brief peek inside a darkened school in Mexico would have such an influence on her - or her students. We went to Tijuana, Mexico, to build houses," she said. I had never done anything like that before; in fact, it was the first mission trip I had ever been on." Stewart joined a group of 65 people who built four houses in one week in a poor suburb of Tijuana. The living conditions were primitive. "I never noticed any birds there but there were stray dogs everywhere. I came across a small golden Lab that was dead and I felt so bad and then someone said that it was common to see dogs that had died because there wasn't enough ! food for the people, let alone the dogs," she said.

She spent many hours mixing concrete for the small stucco- covered homes. There were no power tools; everything was done by hand. "The people there were so appreciative," she added. "They even gave us a small party at the school." As a teacher, Stewart was curious about the school and was anxious to see it. She was surprised to find it enclosed inside a chain link fence because there were so many gang problems. When she peeked inside a room, she found that the classrooms were dismal. "Our classrooms here are so welcoming and colorful," she said. "It really made me sad when I saw how little the kids had who attended school there. There were no windows, so there was a lack of daylight, and very few electric lights There were no bookshelves for books and the walls were completely bare."

When she returned to the United States she vowed to do something about it. She explained the situation t! o her class and suggested that they help the school. Last Friday, Stewart's fifth-graders threw a party for the Tijuana school. They put together goodie bags filled with candy for the 80 students and they made Christmas cards. They also packed up seven large boxes of school supplies to mail to the school. "We usually get our teacher gifts at Christmas," said Kristen Koncelik. "This year we're buying school supplies for the school in Mexico instead of giving her gifts." "I thought they would want something like teddy bears," said Anastasia Erickson. "But they needed school supplies." "They have much less than we have here in our school," added Luke Horton.  "I woke up this morning and I thought 'This is going to be a hard day at school today because of all that we have to do for the school in Mexico,' but I feel good being able to help them," said Joey Davis. I was surprised to see many of the kids writing their cards in Spanish, so that the kids in Tijuana would be able to read them! "Our Spanish teacher gave us a form to follow and taught us some words that we might want to use in our letters," said Jeremy Mikrit.

Mark Aviles didn't have to use the form. He came to the United States from Mexico three years ago. He speaks Spanish and he wrote his cards on his own.  I told them about my family and I wished them a Merry Christmas," he said. He was bothered by the fact that some of the kids don't have shoes and that there are a lot of bottle caps and nails on the playground."It makes me sad," he said. "At least these cards will make them feel better." Many of the kids were excited about some of the school supplies that kids brought in. "We have a lot of books in Spanish," said Kyle Wucherpfennig. "There's 'Clifford the Big Red Dog' and 'The Grinch.' " For some the party was a mix of different feelings. "I feel both happy and sad," said Ben Fixmer. "It must be really hard for these kids in Mexico.  I ! said: "How would you feel if you just got school supplies for Christmas?"

"It would be OK," he answered in a very serious tone. "Because I sort of need them because my pencils are really getting short." I could tell by the look on his face that he was OK with his short pencil. Somehow the tenacity with which he worked on his card said a short pencil was better than no pencil at all. "We have all this in our classroom and they have nothing," said Lorena Gavidia. "They need so much."