Sam Walkoff

Wrapping gifts and organizing supplies, sophomore Rachel Deadwyler, junior Johnathan Stephens and senior Brandi Beaubien set up for Marketing II’s holiday wrapping event. Community members have the opportunity to bring the gifts for marketing and DECA students to wrap in exchange for a donation to the Day of Service programming. “For parents who are really busy this time of year, it’s really helpful for them to just be able to drop off gifts. It relieves a lot of stress and it’s for a really good cause,” Beaubien said.

To get into the holiday spirit and help out the community, DECA, along with Marketing II students, are doing a holiday gift wrapping event Dec. 5-7.

“Community members will bring unwrapped gifts to West High. West High DECA will provide the gift wrapping supplies and service, and West High DECA is simply asking that patrons pay what they can for the service we provide. All of the proceeds raised, outside of covering our cost, will go to the Parkway West High Day of Service fund,” Marketing teacher and DECA sponsor Holly Weber said.

While the event is a whole class project, seniors Blakely Gibeaut, Peter Hollingsworth and Melissa Pupillo were the students that took charge.

“Really our whole class is working on this—Ms. Weber has helped us a lot with it and the whole class is helping us, but it’s really us three that have our names on the project,” Gibeaut said. “I advertised it, set it up, got all the things for the decorations and made the holiday training stuff.”

Initially, the students went back and forth on what event they would do and what charity it would fund.

“I tasked the students with coming up with a creative way to raise funds for Parkway West’s Day of Service,” Weber said. “This idea came out of a brainstorm, it seemed to have legs and the students ran with it.”

Weber states that Gibeaut was the leader and came up with the idea for the event.

“We were gonna do a chili cook-off because as Marketing II students, you have to do some sort of project, but that one didn’t work out,” Gibeaut said. “I started thinking about the holiday season and what people needed, and this idea just came up.”

In order to make it convenient for working parents and students with after-school activities, the event will be held from 6-8 p.m.  

“We didn’t want to do it right after school because parents are still working, so we are holding the event later in the evening with the hopes that they will come and get gifts wrapped after work,” Hollingsworth said.

The students have worked on this project since October and are excited for their work to pay off at the event.

“Everyone should come and get gifts wrapped and just hang out, it’s going to be a fun time,” Gibeaut said.