Thurston Middle School students spread kindness
Thurston Middle School students took a break from classes Monday to spread some holiday cheer.
Seventeen students from Thurston’s Peer Assistance Leadership, or PAL, program sang Christmas carols and gave gifts to children at the La Playa Center, a free English-as-a-second-language school. PAL focuses on service to the community while also aiming to teach students leadership skills.
The visit ended a morning tour that included stops at the Laguna Food Pantry and the Alternative Sleeping Location, the city’s overnight emergency shelter.
At the pantry, students delivered and sorted canned goods they had collected during a schoolwide food drive. Students then received a tour of the ASL, which provides meals and sleeping space for 45 people per night.
Students then boarded a bus and made the short trip along Laguna Canyon Road to the La Playa Center, which is housed in the Boys & Girls Club of Laguna Beach. Parents can drop off their kids at child care, which then frees them to attend English-learning classes taught by volunteer teachers.
The Laguna Beach-based nonprofit South County Crosscultural Council operates La Playa and the Laguna Day Worker Center — which aims to match workers with contractors and homeowners for landscaping, home repairs and other work. It also set up a nearby day worker site where the people looking for a day’s labor can congregate.
Thurston classes have taken gifts to toddlers at the La Playa Center for several years, but the experience can be a real eye-opener for students who are new to PAL.
“A lot of them don’t see these types of [places] that are in Laguna,” said Thurston Spanish teacher Jeff Dippel, who co-leads the PAL program with history teacher Darci Anderson.
Dippel and Anderson chaperoned the students Monday.
Inside the La Playa Center, students stood in a straight line while facing children and their mothers and sang “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and other seasonal tunes.
One mother, with a child on her lap, filmed the performance on her cellphone.
At one point, a couple of students broke into a little dance, apparently moved by the celebration.
After a few songs, it was time for gifts. Parents and students helped kids tear the wrapping to get to dolls, miniature toy cars and other delights.
For some parents, the students’ generosity carried particular significance.
“I feel happy for my kid; he doesn’t receive anything for Christmas,” said Rancho Santa Margarita resident Maribel Lopez, whose 18-month-old son, Andres Lam, held a plastic toy truck.
Through a translator, Laguna Beach resident Ariane Cardona said she felt “blessed” by the giving. Cardona has a 3-year-old daughter.
“It’s fun hanging out with them even though it takes away from school time,” said Thurston student Kidd Stablein, 14. “I feel like we’re doing something good and paying attention to what is going on in the world.”
Students in PAL meet once a week during a class period that other students use for tutoring help or making up tests.
“It’s a big sacrifice on their part,” Dippel said in an earlier phone interview. “They might have to make up work before or after school or during lunch.
“Hopefully they end up doing community service later on.”
Twitter: @AldertonBryce
