NEWS Walnut Valley Unified School District
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 880 S. Lemon Avenue
December 10, 2010 Walnut, CA 91789
Contact: Kelli Gile, Office of Community Resources
(909) 595-1261 ext. 31204
Westhoff Sparks Giving Spirit
WALNUT, CA—On December 10, Westhoff Elementary School continued its holiday tradition during the 18th annual Spark of Love Toy Drive, co-sponsored by Southland firefighters and ABC7 as students and staff donated hundreds of new toys for needy families.
“It is comforting to me to know that during these tough economic times, Westhoff continues to lead our community in generosity as well as academic excellence,” said Principal Denise Rendon.
The program also featured wonderful holiday music performed by kindergarten through fifth grade students, instrumental music, and the traditional staff finale.
Students were decked out in red and green holiday colored shirts and sweaters, winter scarves, and antler headbands for the show. They danced, waved snowflakes, performed cartwheels, and dashed on scooters and rollerblades. One student even jumped on a pogo stick!
“This is the spirit of kindness, giving, and sharing,” said fifth graders as they began their performance of Wonderful Christmastime.
During the finale, Westhoff students cheered seeing their teachers’ dance a choreographed routine to Santa Clause is Comin’ to Town!
Firefighters Captain Bobby Seals, Craig Srednick, Dave Bohan, Santos Luna, and Andrew Bracy from Station #146 in Walnut were on hand to accept the toys.
After collecting the donations, they enjoyed the holiday show (with the best view) sitting on top of their fire truck!
“This is the best holiday program I’ve ever seen in 28 years of service,” Seals announced at the end of the show.
He told all the Westhoff students and their families how proud they should be because the gifts they donated today will make a lot of children happy on Christmas morning.
Captions:
Angelique Wong dropped off a toy with firefighter Andrew Bracy.
Third grader Justine Foung donates a toy at the Spark of Love toy drive.
Philbert Loekman played some air guitar during Run, Rudolph, Run performed by the all 1st grade students.
Wearing holiday mittens and scarves, Westhoff kindergarteners performed White Christmas with American Sign Language.
Westhoff staff members, joined by 4th grader Sean Lew, performed Santa Clause is Comin’ to Town during the show’s finale.