“Tis the season to be jolly.”  We hear that so much this time of year.  However, what does this season actually mean to you?  Does it mean presents, food, lights, and decorations?  

    To the James Buchanan High School Tri-M members it means something different.  To them this is the season to give back to the elementary school students.  They are able to do this through Elf on the Shelf with a kindergarten class at Appomattox Elementary School.  

Rebecca O’Brien, daughter of Deike, is the teacher of the class at Appomattox where Tri-M sends the letters and goodies.  Even though Deike and her family had everything under control she decided to hand the baton to another group.

“Our family took upon her [Rebecca O’Brien] class… so we wrote letters to the kids, we were in contact with them, we even followed them throughout the year a little bit,” said Band Director and Tri-M advisorMrs. Sheryl Deike (Faculty)

Deike said, “I presented it to Tri-M and we decided to take two classes.”

Tri-M is a National Honor Society for musically-inclined students.  This year the club has 27 students.  Each member had a specific student to whom they wrote and sent presents.

“She said that they just sat and cried because the way these kids just took to the letters that you guys wrote…” said Deike, “it was so cool because things that you, that the kids had written to their kids unbeknownst how fitting it was.”

Each year the letters are written in the perspective of their Elf, whose name was Chippy.  The letters contain words of encouragement to the children.  The notes are handwritten by the Tri-M students themselves and were sent December 12.  The goodie bags containing erasers, pencils, crayons, coloring books, and different kinds of snacks were sent out Dec. 15 to 22.  Each club member was in charge of bringing these items in for their student.  This year they were only given a few days to get these gifts for the children.

“We should get the names 

of the kids sooner so we have more time to work on it.” said Kierstyn Martin (12).

Martin, the president of Tri-M, hopes that next year the members will have more time to work on this so that the elementary students can have an even better Elf on the Shelf.  She enjoys being able to know that these elementary school children can get these gifts around Christmas time.  The Tri-M members don’t know the backgrounds of the students so they try to make this a fun, memorable event for the children.