Rancho Minerva Handing Out Hope

Tears flowed down her face as she walked out the doors with a cart full of boxes. But the boxes she carried were not just any box, they were blessing boxes.  This parent’s holiday season just took a turn for the better.  In fact, 15 families at Rancho Minerva just felt the result of a team of dedicated, generous, empathetic faculty and staff who pulled together to bless each family.

In early December, a team from Rancho Minerva met with a wonderful idea.  An idea to extend an offer of holiday hope to 15 selected families who were either living homeless or nearly homeless through the circumstances they had been dealt.  You would never know it by the resilient smile each student has walking around the campus, but the outlook of  yet another  holiday season with little to no food, the feeling of being cold and the feeling of disappointment which consumes their thoughts as we neared the final school days of 2015.  The offer of holiday hope literally brought tears to every family as they picked up boxes of goods, filled from our own students, staff and parents.

Students lined the sidewalks on chilly mornings the last few weeks of December collecting goods for families.  Parents chipped in and unloaded boxes of food, clothing, blankets and toiletries.  As the donations came in, the faculty and staff or RMMS stepped in to adopt each family.  15 families  represented as ornaments that  hung from a tree in the office were one by one adopted by teams of teachers and staff.  Bags of new jackets, blankets, socks began to fill our offices as the blessing boxes began to fill.  The generosity of the team at Rancho Minerva overflowed and abounded throughout the boxes and boxes filled for each family.

On the final day before holiday break, one-by-one each family came to pick up their donations.  Every exchange between the RMMS team and the family resulted in tears of joy, relief and hope.  This time of year is about giving.  This year, the team from Rancho Minerva gave our parents and students hope.  Such a wonderful memory for all.