FCCLA makes Christmas a little brighter for soldiers

Fort Scott High School FCCLA members (from left to right) Alycia Endicott, Ashley Parrish, Alicia Abogast, Hannah Messer and chapter advisor Rita Nienstedt hold cards while standing next to a small selection of the more than 3,000 items donated by the students and staff of Fort Scott High School to be donated to U.S. troops overseas. (Michael Pommier/Tribune)

Fort Scott High School students are making the holidays a little brighter for U.S. soldiers overseas.

Through a contest held by the Fort Scott High School chapter of Family Career and Community Leadership of America (FCCLA) more than 3,000 items have been collected to be sent to U.S. troops serving overseas, according to FCCLA chapter advisor Rita Nienstedt.

Margaret Carter, with Veterans from Foreign Wars Women's Auxiliary Post No. 1165, contacted the school asking if any school organizations would be willing to donate items during the holiday season.

A homemade card sits next to a box which will contain numerous items donated by students and staff of Fort Scott High School as part of a contest organized by the Fort Scott High School FCCLA. The items will be sent to troops overseas by Fort Scott VFW Post No. 1165.(Michael Pommier/Tribune)

Nienstedt said she thought it was the opportunity she was looking for.

"When the school secretary sent it out, I jumped on the chance and saw it as a bigger project," she said.

To get the entire school involved the project, it was turned into a competition between seminar classes at the high school. Nienstedt said the classes each donated items and the class that donated the most would be rewarded with a pizza party.

"(The pizza party) probably stimulated some interest," she said.

The more than 3,000 articles collected in just seven school days included a wide range of items, according to Nienstedt, such as toothbrushes, toothpaste, personal care items, deodorant, shampoo, crackers and cheese, crackers and peanut butter, granola bars, holiday mints and chewing gum.

She added that a lot of groups, upon request from the troops, donated homemade cards. One other item the troops requested and which was donated by many students, was new or used toys. The toys can be given to children service men and women encounter overseas.

"We have a lot of stuffed animals going overseas," she said.

FCCLA takes on a large project every year.

Previous projects included the Clothesline Project, which is a national program created to produce a visual awareness of violence against women, Nienstedt said. Last year, the organization brought in a guest speaker who has battled throat cancer to talk about the dangers of smoking.

Despite tackling large projects every year, Nienstedt said students had no idea this venture would be as big as it turned out to be.

"It ended up being a much larger project than we anticipated," she said.

FCCLA is a student based, student-led organization similar to other trade-based organizations such as Future Farmers of America and SkillsUSA. One thing that separates FCCLA from the other organizations is its focus on family, Nienstedt said.

"Of all of those, we are really the only one that has family as its main focus and I just felt like this was something we could do for soldiers to help support them while they're oversees away from their families," she said.