BY STACI WILSON
Retired teacher Holly Snitzer leads the Blue Ridge Elementary teachers and staff in singing “Let There Be Peace on Earth” during the Sharing Parade assembly on Thursday, Dec. 17, STAFF PHOTO/STACI WILSON
One-by-one Blue Ridge Elementary students filed into the school auditorium Thursday.
Each presented a food item, stacking it on the table with the other donated items.
For the past 30 years, the school has celebrated the holiday season with its annual “Sharing Parade.” The food, along with presents, is donated to Blue Ridge families in need. Each year, the program helps about 30 district families. Elementary classes collect the non-perishable food items; the school’s PTO provides a ham, potatoes and juice; and the high school’s Leo Club, along with Toys-N-Tots, provides presents for the families.
To mark this year’s milestone, retired teachers and the original Sharing Parade organizers – former principal Mario Salati and retired teachers Liz Benedict and Holly Sniitzer – joined the morning celebration.
Even after her retirement in 2008, Benedict has never missed a Sharing Parade at the school.
Blue Ridge third graders Mason Crist and Maliya Lee also used an acrostic poem, with friends holding the letters to spell out “S-H-A-R-I-N-G” at the annual Sharing Parade which provides district families in need with food and presents. STAFF PHOTO/STACI WILSON
Through the years, she told the students, the program which originated in the elementary gymnasium (now the site of the 5th grade classrooms), has grown and changed.
But one thing, she said, has not changed. “You do something so special that matters to so many people,” Benedict told the students.
“You may think that one food item is no big deal,” she said, “but one food item over 30 years equals helping 1,000 families to have a better and brighter Christmas. That is huge.”
In the early years, the program included a staff song. This year, organizers brought that tradition back with Blue Ridge teachers and staff offering, “Let There Be Peace on Earth.” Snitzer, a former music teacher, directed the singers, and Benedict served as the accompanist.
During the assembly, student speakers from kindergarten through fifth grade, take to the podium to give their thoughts on “sharing.”
Liz Benedict, Holly Snitzer and Mario Salati were the organizers of the first Blue Ridge Sharing Parade 30 years ago. STAFF PHOTO/STACI WILSON
A first grade group offered suggestions of “Gifts from the Heart;” and fifth graders held that “Helping is Good and It’s Smart,” using an acrostic poem.
Teacher Kathy Roe, who emcees and is one of the organizers behind the annual event, called this year’s Sharing Parade both “beautiful and overwhelming.”
A Blue Ridge Elementary student places a food donation on the Sharing Parade collection table as the students filed into the auditorium on Thursday. STAFF PHOTO/STACI WILSON
She thanked the students and staff for their generosity, kindness, creativity and enthusiasm.
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