Making A Difference

Yonkers Montessori Academy High School students raised over $400 from the school community to support the Westchester County Holiday Gift Drive for Children in Foster Care. 

Because the need for contributions of gifts is high, particularly for teenagers in the foster care system, YMA students decided to take their funds and focus on buying gifts for children about their own age.

On Tuesday, December 20, YMA students went to local businesses including in the Cross County Shopping Area to fulfill some of the holiday wish list items of teens currently in foster care in Westchester County.

The county representative assured us that most of the gifts would go to children in Yonkers. Ceaira Cruz, 10th grade student states of her experience, “To read their letters to Santa really touched my heart. I was more than happy to participate in going to buy gifts for kids less fortunate than I am. The thought of my school making a difference in someone’s life makes me smile. Even though we only had a name on a paper with a letter to Santa, our hearts went out to those strangers.”

The county's Holiday Gift Drive was begun in 2003 in an effort to collect gifts for all the children in Westchester County foster care. In the last eight years, the drive has annually provided gifts for more than 800 children in foster care as well as children receiving other services from the department.

Yonkers Montessori Academy has participated in the program for the past two years.