{"id":58805,"date":"2014-12-16T11:01:51","date_gmt":"2014-12-16T19:01:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theavtimes.com\/?p=58805"},"modified":"2014-12-17T09:09:56","modified_gmt":"2014-12-17T17:09:56","slug":"local-school-teaches-lesson-on-giving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/2014\/12\/16\/local-school-teaches-lesson-on-giving\/","title":{"rendered":"Local school teaches lesson on giving"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Teachers,<\/a>
Teachers, staff and community members pulled together to stock a “holiday boutique,” hosted by Manzanita Elementary School. More than 145 children in need will receive gifts from the boutique, all free of charge. (Contributed)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

PALMDALE \u2013 Eager parents slowly browsed tables loaded with dolls, digital cameras and even electric guitars, selecting the perfect gift for each of their children. But there were no price tags or cash registers at this holiday boutique hosted by Manzanita Elementary School. Every soon-to-be Christmas gift was free.<\/p>\n

\u201cManzanita is more than a school,\u201d said Principal Kelly Jensen. \u201cWe are part of this neighborhood and community. This was our way of saying \u2018Happy holidays\u2019 to our families.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The boutique was the pet project of third grade teacher Jeff Pettipas (left), who led the campaign to collect new toys to be given away. (Contributed)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The boutique was the pet project of third grade teacher Jeff Pettipas<\/strong>, who led the campaign to collect new toys to be given away at the boutique since beginning of October.<\/p>\n

\u201cTeachers, staff and community members all pulled together to donate,\u201d said Pettipas. \u201cThey are providing parents an opportunity to make the holidays a little more bright for their children.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe even got a lot of support from our superintendent,\u201d Pettipas said. \u201cWhen we presented the idea to Mr. Maldonado, he got very excited. It was very encouraging.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than 145 children will receive gifts from the boutique, all free of charge. Fliers went home with every student inviting parents to participate. In the end, 86 families signed up. Each was randomly assigned a time slot to come to the boutique, which was held from 3 to 7 p.m., Thursday, Dec 11.<\/p>\n

While parents browsed the boutique, their children were busy coloring and enjoying candy canes in a nearby classroom. Parents were even given dark plastic bags to hide the gifts from prying eyes on the way home.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore than 15 members of the Manzanita team volunteered their time\u2026,\u201d said Jensen. \u201cEducation is more than learning in a classroom each day. We\u2019re in this together, as a school, a district and as the Palmdale community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manzanita Elementary, located on 33rd St. E. and Avenue Q-4, serves a vulnerable community, where almost nine out of 10 students are eligible for free or reduced lunch programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of the parents have been excited and very grateful,\u201d said Pettipas. \u201cI\u2019m grateful for the generosity of our community who made all of this possible. It\u2019s another reason I love our Manzanita family.\u201d<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

[Information via news release from Palmdale School District.]<\/em><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PALMDALE \u2013 Eager parents slowly browsed tables loaded with dolls, digital cameras and even electric guitars, selecting the perfect gift for each of their children. But there were no price tags or cash registers at this holiday boutique hosted by Manzanita Elementary School. Every soon-to-be Christmas gift was free. \u201cManzanita is more than a school,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":58807,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29,11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58805"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}