This school week started Monday with jingle bells and generosity at Janesville’s Wilson Elementary School.
Santa and his helpers hauled in huge wrapped boxes and gifts for every student during a surprise visit by Oconomowoc High School’s DECA club.
Every year, the group picks a Milwaukee area public school with overwhelming need as the focus of its holiday gift drive. This year, a Janesville DECA director passed word to her friends at Oconomowoc that Wilson Elementary might qualify.
The Fourth Ward school has a 100 percent free-reduced lunch rate.
Monday, each of the K-5s school’s 240 students got a wrapped box filled with clothing and winter garments they needed, toys they’d asked for, and a bonus — each kid got the one board game they wanted most.
Wilson Elementary Kindergarten teacher Dawn Farmer watched the joyous pandemonium as her students tried on new clothing and paraded around the classroom showing off their new Barbies, “Candyland” and “Perfection” board games, toy jet airplanes and multi-color squishy worms.
Farmer said the experience was one of the most significant days she can remember for students and their families, some of whom aren’t always sure where they’ll find their next meal.
