The Arcadia High School (AHS) Student Council Apache Commission (SCAC) hosted its annual Ed Schreiner Toy and Jacket Drive from Nov. 29 to Dec. 6. Ever since the 1990s, SCAC has held this toy drive to raise donations for the White Mountain Apache community in Arizona.

“In the beginning days of the AHS-White Mountain Apache relationship, [we] asked how we could help the White Mountain Apache community,” said SCAC adviser Mrs. Heather Moore. “The response was to please send jackets because it gets very, very cold in the high elevations where the reservation is located, and to please also send toys for the kids during the holiday season. That’s where the Toy and Jacket Drive came from.”

At Fort Apache, temperatures reach their lowest during the winter months. The fort experiences about 69 inches of snow each year, particularly from December to January. Due to the freezing weather in the winter, the Apaches need more winter clothes, such as thick jackets and pants to stay warm in the winter. In addition to jackets, gently used toys and games were donated to give to the children at Fort Apache.

The toy drive has received more and more donations each year. According to Mrs. Moore, the toy drive started off as a “small band trailer that belonged to Mr. Ed Schreiner, who hooked it up to his truck and drove it over to the reservation.”

SCAC spread the word for the toy and jacket drive throughout AHS. Posters were placed on the student bulletin board, throughout campus, and reminders for the drive were posted on social media to reach as many people as possible. Additionally, Apache News (APN) featured the drive on their newscast, broadcasting the event to as many people as possible. The publicity of the posters and reminders by the AHS community helped the drive gain the traction they needed.

The toy drive received enough donations to fill a large truck, which is being driven to the reservation by two members of the AHS administration team, as well as an Arcadia Unified School District (AUSD) driver. Over a period of two days, the truck was unloaded of its donations and distributed throughout the reservation by members of the community on the reservation. In previous years, the drive has received more donations than they could deliver. When this happens, SCAC sends the extra items to a storage space to be delivered the next year.

“This year donations are being sorted and packed thanks to [junior] Isabella Martinez who is volunteering her time and coordinating the sorting for her Girl Scout Gold Award project,” said Mrs. Moore. “Many campus organizations, including SCAC, help with the sorting.”

The Girl Scout Gold Award is the highest of three awards in the Girl Scout community; the award recognizes a girl scout’s commitment to their community and its issues by making a lasting impact on the community.

“I collaborated with our school administration, SCAC and other student organizations on campus,” said Martinez. “Ultimately, the process would be to collect all the goods, open them and process each item to its designated area.”

The entire event was a huge task for Martinez; after meeting with AUSD administrators and coordinating a timeline for the drive, Martinez then had to raise enough funds to make the drive happen.

“Coupled with money I had raised in the past from selling cookies, I was able to purchase the necessary items needed to package the donations,” said Martinez. “Once we launched the drive, each day I would give an orientation of how to process the goods…there were approximately 12 volunteers daily.”

The Ed Schreiner Toy and Jacket Drive this year  was a massive success, and Martinez reflected, “My goal is to create a manual so that the drive can run efficiently every year. I am thoroughly impressed by our student body and the willingness to commit time to this drive. I want to thank everyone that has supported me through this process and thank all the students who donated their time to help organize the donations!”

Thank you to SCAC, the Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA), and Bella Martinez for helping organize the Ed Schreiner Toy and Jacket Drive to bring these donations to the White Mountain Apaches. We hope that the next drive is just as successful!

Photo courtesy of AUSD DCI