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HAMILTON — The New Miami National Honor Society shopping spree began with a schoolwide viewing of “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
“Last Friday, we got the school to shorten the day,” said president Lacey Harper. “We had all the kids go back to homeroom and for $1, they got to watch ‘It’s a Wonderful Life.’ ”
Then she and the other NHS girls went from room-to-room with soft drinks, popcorn and candy, and netted a profit of about $550.
That money, along with some leftover money from last year, was earmarked to purchase Christmas presents for a family the group decided to “adopt.”
“We talked to some people in the school administration and the school nurse and they recommended the family,” Harper said.
The family remained anonymous to Harper and her crew, who just received a list of seven children’s names, ages 4 to 12 years old, with clothing sizes and interests. They decided to go to Walmart en masse with advisors Kara Hanges and Katie Spurrier for one shopping spree to provide a Christmas for the family.
When Michael Jodrey, manager of the Walmart store on Hamilton’s West Side, got wind of their impending visit earlier in the week, he not only offered them a discount on their purchases, but kicked in a $100 gift card to the cause. Then, when he met them at the front of the store prior to their shopping spree, he told that he was just talking to a customer named Joe Gibson about their family, and Gibson kicked in another $20.
All tallied, the NHS group had nearly $1,000 to spend.
The five students and two advisors adopted a “divide and conquer” strategy to do the shopping. Harper teamed up with Kaylee Philpot and Janisha Lathan to look for clothes for the girls on the list. Others went to shop for boys’ clothes and toys.
After about an hour of shopping, advisor Kara Hanges returned from the toy department to examine their selections.
“You girls have done a great job,” she said, holding up several hangers of pink clothing, and then delivered some more good news.
“The toy prices turned out to be quite reasonable,” she said. “So we have enough to get them all shoes.”
So they took off on a journey for boots.
After nearly two hours in the aisles of Walmart, the shoppers went to the cash register only to find that they still had some money left over, so they purchased a $200 gift card to give to the family so they could buy some food and whatever else they needed.
With their purchases neatly tied up in bags and arranged by child, the group made plans to do the wrapping on Friday.
“I wish I could be there when they open all this,” Harper said.
Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2188 or rjones@coxohio.com.
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