Seven low-income families in Yamhill County will be visited by Santa this season thanks to students from Silver School at Newberg High School. The adoption project, as it is called at the school, is a more ambitious repeat of last year’s adoption of six families.
It is the senior project of Sara Smith, 18, and Eva Taeubel, 17. They split the seven families among the 18 advisory groups and 396 students that populate the school. “Three advisories are put in a group and they each have a family,” Taeubel said of the logistics. (Two families were combined.)

While last year the school had contacted YCAP (Yamhill Community Action Partnership) the week after Thanksgiving, this year YCAP approached the school. “They set us up,” Smith said, adding that YCAP gave students information about the different families including age and gender of all the members, their interests and what they would like to receive for Christmas.

Silver School principal Carol Campbell said she hopes that with the additional time available the school will be able to raise more than the $3,000 in gifts, giftcards, money and food that were donated last year.

So far they seem to be on track as the students are responding to the appeal to donate. Taeubel said that when presenting their project in the different advisories students have generously opened their wallets and donated. One student even gave a $20 bill, saying that left to his own devices he would waste the money.

The pair believe the nature of the gifts requested might help students feel good about donating. The families have asked for shoes, clothes, socks, shower gel, Fred Meyer gift cards, diapers. The most expensive gift was a request for pots and pans. Some who have children asked for games, and there were requests for movie passes.

“We’re not asking you to go out and buy an iPod, we’re asking you to go out and buy pots and pans,” has been Smith’s sale pitch to her fellow students. She plans to pitch in and buy some items for a teen-age girl, which she said was more exciting than to go shopping for herself. Her 4-H group will donate part of the proceeds from their yearly fundraising event to the families as well.

“We hope not only to help the community but to bond Silver School,” Taeubel said of the pair’s goal. Their hopes extend beyond the current student body as they would like to see the adoption drive become an annual event undertaken by Silver School students.

Campbell said the project is a good example of what a senior project is supposed to entail. The pair has had to invest quite a bit of time and effort in reaching out to the student body and planning the logistics of the event. She said that last year students were impressed that most of the gifts presented during a special school assembly had been essential items. The purpose of the assembly Taeubel said is so that “students see tangible results.”

The deadline for the school to collect items is Dec. 15. For more information or to make a donation, call the Silver School at 503-554-4427. Items will be delivered to the families after a special assembly Dec. 17.

Story by Laurent Bonczijk,  Newberg Graphic