To Recieve

“It’s just so nice to give a gift to someone in your family and have it be a total surprise.”

“I like picking something out to buy that I think my dad will love to open.”

“It was so fun to shop without my parents or grandparents. Then the present was a secret for everybody.”

As adults we understand the joys of giving. Of spending time considering the gift and the recipient. Of anticipating the reaction and enjoying the surprise. It’s no wonder that our children want in on this action! The quotes above are from current and recently graduated Summit students talking about Summit’s Annual Holiday Gift Market. Every year, Summit volunteers create a shopping experience for our students. We transform the multi-purpose room into an eclectic gift shop featuring gifts for parents, siblings, grandparents and even pets!

Here’s how it works: for two days in December, the MPR (multi-purpose room) is magically transformed into a gift shop. Gift prices range from a quarter to a dollar, so kids come to school with around $5 and then get down to business. “Personal shoppers” help our kids select gifts, check out and wrap and tag their treasures. Fast forward to your holiday celebration and get ready for your surprise!

To pull this off, we need your help. We estimate it takes around 50-60 volunteer hours to make the Summit HGS work. We’d love your help setting up, shopping with the kids, wrapping gifts (don’t worry if you’re not a great wrapper…we use lots of gift bags!) and finally tearing down. And the benefit to you? Helping our kids pull off a holiday gift exchange they can be proud of (and that just might turn into an annual holiday story!)

“As a volunteer, I love interacting with the kids. Preschoolers are focused on the wonder of buying gifts all by themselves. First graders are looking for the best gift. The fifth graders are trying to use their money to their best advantage.”

How can you help? Two ways:

1) Volunteer your time! We need help setting up on Wednesday, December 10th, starting at 5:30PM. “Many hands make light work” and if we have a some great hands, we think we’ll have everything set up within an hour and a half.  We also need personal shopping assistants, check-out help and gift wrappers on Thursday, December 11 from 8:40AM-2:30PM (with a break for lunch) and again on Friday, December 12 from 8:40-10:30AM and from 12:40-1:50PM. Stop by the front desk or email Molli (molli.cunningham@summitschools.org) OR look for the VolunteerSpot sign up form coming soon to your email box to sign up for a spot. Join us for as little or long as your schedule allows.

2) Make a donation: While we’ve got a small collection of gifts already, we can use more! Our goal, of course, is to have enough gifts so each child can purchase a gift for all of his/her immediate family members. If you have gently used, no longer wanted items (books, flashlights, decor, stuffed animals) or would like to donate a few new things (lotions/soaps, cards, candles, hot chocolate or other holiday foods/mixes) please drop them off at the front desk by Monday, December 8. If you’re short on collecting time and would like to donate cash, we’ll shop for you!

Thanks for being part of this Summit holiday tradition!

“We’re going to Yale!”

It’s actually Y.A.L.E. = Yet Another Learning Experience. But at it’s inception, saying one was “going to Yale” was half the fun!

Y.A.L.E. had its start at McLeod Academy. One of the teachers at the time, Tracy Corell, wanted to share her passion for knitting with her students. Knitting wasn’t part of the curriculum…Y.A.L.E. was born. The idea for having staff, parents and students share their passions and learn with and from each other took off. Early Y.A.L.E. activities included sessions on kite making, paper airplanes, quilting, math puzzles and science experiments and creating with duct tape (before it was a “thing”).

Summit focused the Y.A.L.E. program into multiple aspects: a physical component, a community project/service learning component and a financial literacy component facilitated through Junior Achievement.  Since then our kids have participated in swimming lessons, ice skating lessons, gymnastics classes, taekwondo classes and more. Parents and grandparents have played a key role in transporting our kids to these classes and lessons.

During the first few years of the service learning component, Pat’s students took on the responsibility for organizing and implementing a blood drive. The Char Hegland Memorial Blood Drive was well organized and successful in the hands of Pat’s students. Char was the long-time office manager, starting at Linn Academy, staying through McLeod Academy through the start of Summit Schools. In previous years, Char had organized a blood drive for school staff. As a well loved member of the McLeod and later Summit family, it was fitting for Pat’s students to honor Char’s memory with their work on the blood drive.

Since then service projects have covered a broad range of events and opportunities to connect to our community: Kindergarteners have worked with Head Start kids to write a play for parents; PreK students have loved stray animals and baked treats for the Cedar Rapids Humane Society, we’ve had can drives and penny drives and we’ve packed meals for Horizons and tied blankets for the Madge Philips center.