Dress A Live Doll

Monday, November 16, 2009

Today I spoke to Ms. Carman. A google document was set up, so that teachers and faculty wishing to participate in this program this year can add their name to the list and specify whether they would like a child or teen, and if possible the gender. It's been up since last Wednesday, and Ms. Carman announced at her staff meeting, that anyone whose advisory wished to participate would have to do so through the google document. After school, I drove over to the Salvation Army and picked up the names of all the kids and teens who had been assigned to our school. After that, I drove back to school and stayed after, for two hours, assigning "dolls" to each advisory. This, as I knew from last year would be difficult, because I needed to do my best to match up each advisory with what they requested, as well as make sure that no child that I had been given was neglected. However difficult it was, I think I successfully paired each advisory/faculty member with the child or teen closest to the what the advisory wanted, or if there was no specifics, who I thought they would most enjoy shopping for. The best example of this was for the Sturgis Prom Committee, who had requested to be involved in the project. The only specifics that were given were that they receive a teen. When I looked through the teens I had been given, I found that there was a girl of 14 who was very girly, liked make-up, and cheerleading. I believe that this was a very good match for the Prom committee, because the committee is made up mostly of girls, several of whom are cheerleaders, and I thought they would particularly enjoy shopping for this girl. This way not only would the group enjoy making an underprivileged girl's holiday season a bit brighter, they would also make the best decisions to get her what she likes.
In order to make sure that the faculty received their assignments and were able to plan for shopping and wrapping adequately, I tried to get the names out as quickly and as efficiently as possible. In this way, I achieved my first goal. I actually got the names out to everyone at the start of the week, so that they could discuss them in their advisories at the beginning of the week. To make sure that everyone had their assignments and would not lose the information, not only did I enter every piece of information that was given on the "Doll" Tags, I also attached the tags to the general letter from the Salvation Army, along with the note that gifts would be due on Dec. 1. This, I felt was the best possible due date, because if some advisories did not have their gifts in on that Tuesday, I would still be able to take them down to the Salvation Army before the final due date, set by the Salvation Army, for Dec. 5th, by 2:00pm. I also made a note of this on the letters so that the faculty would not be too worried if they felt as if their kids were not going to be able to bring the gifts in.
Tomorrow, we will discuss, in my advisory, what we are going to do for our "doll."