Christmas Card Sale Spreads Cheer, Cash

For needy Long Beach Poly High School students, help can be as close as the art department.

A school-wide Christmas card design contest, now in its second year, raises money for a contingency fund that helps students with personal emergencies.

Last year, card sales earned $1,000 at $1 per card. Students are looking to do even better this year with a $2 price.

This year’s design winner, Helena Hsieh, an 11th-grade honors student, focused her creation on peace.

“I was thinking of a universal theme that everyone could relate to because right now the world is kind of tainted and corrupted,” she said. “I wanted something that would unify all people.”

Jasmeen Smith, a Poly senior and track team member with a 3.7 GPA, got a crucial boost from the card fund last year.

Jasmeen wants to be a lawyer because of a childhood tragedy: When she was 2, her father killed her mother. She hopes one day to help children in similar circumstances.

She was chosen last year to participate in the prestigious National Youth Leadership Forum on Law in Washington, D.C., but she and her grandmother were unable to raise all of the necessary $1,500 for expenses. The card fund stepped in and helped defray part of the cost.

Senior Kirk Tyler, 17, won an opportunity to visit 22 black colleges on a tour sponsored by a Los Angeles church to help young people make informed choices when planning their higher education. The grant didn’t include transportation, so the art department anted up to help him.

Kirk said he is proud of the fact that his fellow students have created such a resource.

“It doesn’t leave us dependent on the community, it leaves us independent,” he said. “We are interdependent within the school.”

Card sales also help fund a Christmas project at nearby Roosevelt Elementary School. Poly students buy 75 stuffed animals and fill 140 stockings with goodies and small toys. They will be distributed at Roosevelt on Thursday.

“For a lot of the kids, it’ll be the only gift they get,” said Daniel Shere, who teaches creative writing at Poly and supervises the Roosevelt project.

The Poly students will perform a 15-minute play they have written for their little neighbors. There’ll be a pinata and presents at the play, Shere said.

“I remember the first year that we did the Christmas play, unfortunately, one of my students got into some gang trouble and was shot seven times,” Shere said. “I’m happy that he lived. But, you know, that makes the newspaper. And the 50 kids that fund-raised and gave out a couple hundred Christmas stockings, that doesn’t make the paper. People don’t see all the good things that young people do, they just read about the drive-bys and all the negative things, and yet there’s so many wonderful young people out there--it’s just amazing.”

Poly’s card project was the brainchild of Assistant Principal Naomi Rainey.

“There are always funds needed,” she said. “There’s always hardship. And it promotes the artistic talent of students at our school.”

The funds have also purchased tools and supplies for art classes, paid SAT fees for some students and purchased a yearbook for a student whose mother had died.

“I know that, in a pinch, Ms. Rainey will come through for us,” Shere said.