Episode 17: Sub for Santa at Timpview

December 1st, 2023 /
Shauna Sprunger /

Sup with the Sup

00:00 / 35:55

Welcome to the next episode of Provo City School District’s What’s Up With The Sup podcast. I am Superintendent Wendy Dau and this week I am joined by Cassidy Baker, the student government advisor at Timpview High School, as well as two members of Timpview’s student government, Caleb Ngatuvai and Sarah Lee. We will be discussing the Sub for Santa program that Timpview runs every year around the holidays. But first, our updates.

The contest for students to design a Find Your Swing pin is winding down. We’ve received several submissions so far. Students can continue to submit their best artwork representing the Find Your Swing theme for the book “Boys in the Boat” for a chance to have their design become the pin. Artwork can be turned into their school’s main office by Wednesday, December 13th, and the winner will receive a $100 gift card from the superintendent.
We’re in the holiday season and that means our schools are holding holiday concerts. Be sure to check out the district or school websites for dates and times of these concerts.
Prepare to spread holiday cheer with Timpview High School’s Sub for Santa program starting after Thanksgiving break, November 27th, 2023 and continuing through winter break until January 3rd, Timpview is teaming up with United Way and the Food and Care Coalition to support families in our district. Whether you want to donate new gifts, contribute cash, or find more ways to join in, visit timpviewsubforsanta.weebly.com and make this season extra special for those in need.
The next school board meeting will be a study session and business meeting on Tuesday, December 12th. Study sessions are held in Boardroom 1 at the District Office and business meetings take place in the Professional Development Center. Both meetings are open to the public and public comments are welcome at the business meeting. Please check our website for start times.
Look for the weekly videocast from Superintendent Dau every Friday. In this short video, she provides important information and updates about work happenings throughout the district.

And now, on to our podcast.

Wendy: Well, hello everyone. I am here with some of Timpview High School’s student government representatives, and they’re here to talk with us about their Sub for Santa project for this year. So we have Caleb Ngatuvai, is that right?

Caleb: Hello. Yeah, that’s right.

Wendy: Okay, I’m making sure I said it right. Okay, we have Sarah Lee.

Sarah: Hi.

Wendy: And we also have Cassidy Baker who is their advisor at Timpview High School. You want to say hello?

Cassidy: Hello.

Wendy: Thank you so much for joining me with this podcast. So I just want to start with something just a little more casual at first. Tell me what you get most excited about in the month of December. December is going to be packed full of stuff, right? Especially as student government leaders. So tell me what you’re most excited for.

Caleb: Um, my favorite part of December is probably getting off of school.

Wendy: That’s a good honest answer.

Caleb: It’s always nice to have a break. So yeah, I look forward to that.

Wendy: Okay, good. Yeah, you’re probably you’re probably just running So like constantly all the time, you just need to be able to just relax and breathe.Right.

Caleb: Exactly. Okay, Sarah. What are you most excited for?

Sarah: Um, I feel like in December, there’s just like a lot of events to look forward to. So like not just in school, but outside of school, there’s like Christmas parties and just like kind of getting ready for the season.

Wendy: It’s just a really fun time. Like I know that lots of people get stressed out, but I also feel like we also are starting to remember how we can be human beings and be kind to one another. And it kind of reminds us of that, which is very good. Well, thank you again for coming to talk with us today, but we want to really highlight what you guys do for Sub for Santa at Timpview. So tell us first off what you’re doing. Give us any information that you want to and how many years, maybe if you know that, that, um, Timpview has been doing this and why you guys are so passionate about it.

Caleb: Yeah, okay. Um, so Timpview has been doing this ever since we started the school, but it really started kicking off within like the last 10, 15 years. And we are basically, um, well, since it’s like Christmas time, we’re just trying to ensure that families around the community have the opportunity to have, like, just an awesome Christmas. So we do everything that we can.

Wendy: That’s great.

Sarah: Um, he kind of just said what I was gonna say, too. Um,

Wendy: I’ll let you go first on the next question, Sarah. I promise.

Sarah: Um I would say something that’s super important about Sub for Santa too is that not only are we kind of unifying our school like Timpview community, like Timpview family, but also it’s really a way to kind of branch out and I feel like unify the community like Provo in general, really anyone can be involved and we can also, you know, spread joy and help each other out. So I think that’s a really Important part about Sub for Santa.

Wendy: That’s awesome. I love hearing about that. Okay, so What are you actually doing for the Sub for Santa project and you’re saying it’s helping families in the community So you’re wanting to provide them a great holiday. What does that include? Like what are all the things that that you’re gathering and and how do you do this? Is it money? Is it donations? Is it tell me all the things

Sarah: So there’s like Several different ways. But, um, one thing that we do as student government is we actually go caroling around different neighborhoods. So, um, we get donations from that. And it’s actually really fun. It’s snowed the past few years we’ve gone caroling, but

Cassidy: t makes it more magical that way.

Wendy: Yes, it does.

Sarah: It really does. Um, and also, um, in StudentGov, we also contact different local businesses to see if we can receive any donations or we also reach out to restaurants, um, for food nights and we get part of the proceeds there for our Sub for Santa program.

Wendy: When you say food nights, is it like, Hey, if you go to Chick-fil-A this night and you say you’re from Timpview high school, then we get a percentage of everything. Is that what you’re talking about?

Sarah: Yeah

Wendy: Okay, perfect.

Sarah: So we’re currently working on that. And just like at school, we have fun events. Like we have a ugly Christmas sweater stag.

Cassidy: And everyone’s got one of those to dig up, right? A good, ugly sweater.

Wendy: Hey, I have no ugly sweaters.

Cassidy: It could be awesome. You know, awesome Christmas sweaters as well. We’ll accept those as well.

Wendy: Oh, okay. That’s fair. Okay. That’s fair.

Sarah: Yeah, so those are just a few things that we do.

Wendy: So when you do the ugly Christmas part, I don’t know why I’m, you know, fixating on this ugly Christmas sweater. It sounds like I might need to get one so I can participate, but tell me what you, what you do. And is it like a dance or is it like a party and you pay to get in or how does that work?

Sarah: So I think it’s a little different this year just because we’re moving into the new school. So that’s really exciting. Um, but. It’s a dance, and I think what we’re planning on doing this year is, um, if you’re able to bring an item on this list of, uh, donation items people can bring, if they can bring that to the dance, um, I think that’s what we’re planning to do for the Ugly Christmas Sweater Stag.

Wendy: Okay.

Sarah: Um, but yeah.

Wendy: Okay, that’s awesome.

Cassidy: Yeah, there might be some hot chocolate there this year. We even messed around with the idea of maybe having one of our teachers dress up as Santa Claus and do some pictures with Santa, like when you were a little kid at the mall. And, um, having a fun, like, kickoff the season Christmas party. It’s on December 1st. So the first Friday back after Thanksgiving.

Wendy: Oh, wow. That’s awesome. Yeah. Are there other things that you do to raise money or donations, Caleb, that you can think of that you guys have planned or maybe you’re still in that planning process to get everything mapped out.

Caleb: Um, I think we’re still mapping some of the stuff out, but for the most part, um, well, we do a lot of like school centered stuff. So we have a student versus teacher basketball game. That’s always super fun.

Wendy: And do the teachers always lose?

Cassidy: You know what I’m going to defend our teachers rightnow. Our teachers are formidable opponents and we’re a pretty good team every year. We’ve got some ex college basketball players.

Wendy: Okay.

Cassidy: We play pretty hard and the kids usually have to buy their way back into the game with points. You can buy points at the end of the game.

Wendy: Okay,

Cassidy: So this has become a fun tradition. Caleb’s already getting like, I can see the eye. He’s ready. He’s ready to win.

Wendy: So do you do this like during the school day or after school?

Caleb: Um, so it’s after school and then we have like an entrance fee of like about five dollars and then all that money goes towards, um, Sub for Santa.

And when is this? Because I am coming to this.

Cassidy: Yeah, you gotta come. You could be on the team.

Wendy: Oh, no, no, no. Yeah.

Cassidy: You could show, could throw the tip.

Cassidy: Okay. I could do that. I could do that. Yeah.

Wendy: When is it?

Caleb: Um, I’m not totally sure. December 6th.

Cassidy: December 6th.

Caleb: Monday, December 6th.

Wendy: Oh, I think we’re going to have a district leadership tip or something.

Cassidy: It’s really fun. The teachers have gotten really into it over the years too. I’ve actually taken a charge, like a real hard charge one year that this video always resurfaces every year of this charge I took against one of our soccer players, but I’ll, I’ll do anything for the win, you know, got to win that game.

Wendy: Oh, we have done, I’ve done this before in the past, but they always made the teachers like do something weird. So like I had to play basketball with my hands tied behind my back or something like that. So I had like a handicap as I’m like playing basketball, that’s my excuse as to why I’m terrible. I am, I am sticking to that story right now, so. Okay, what else, what other things have you guys planned?

Caleb: Um, we’re also doing, like, class collections, basically. So, um, like during, school days, we’ll just have, um, a jar in each classroom that the teacher will actually like promote to have like kids donate, um, and then every other day is when we’ll be collecting those, um, so that, well, it’s like a really good opportunity for like everybody to participate and Sub for Santa, so, um, yeah, that’s the main thing we do.

Wendy: What does the class get if they win?

Caleb: Oh, we’re still deciding that.

Cassidy: We’ve done different things in the past, like the donut and pizza parties. The biggest thing is the bragging rights.

Sarah : Yeah,

Caleb: That’s true.

Cassidy:Because T-Birds love to brag. And that’s kind of our superpower. We put a big, huge first place ribbon in front of the teacher’s door. And that gets to sit there for a while. And that’s good bragging rights as everyone walks by.

Wendy: Okay, that’s cool. Okay, so it’s individual classes. Is it like first period or?

Caleb: Um, yeah, I think it’s your first B day period.

Wendy: Okay, okay, perfect. Okay, so it’s by, so it’s not like sophomores against juniors against seniors. It’s like your actual…

Caleb: It’s like classrooms, yeah.

Wendy: Oh, excellent. So the teacher also needs to save face and like help out with this.

Caleb: Yeah, we got everybody involved.

Wendy: Okay, that’s awesome. Alright, anything else you guys can think of that you have planned?

Sarah: I think those are the big ones.

Caleb: Yeah, I think those are the big ones.

Wendy: They’re the biggest ones. Okay, so who do you partner with in the community to help, um, to help pull this off?

Caleb: The two biggest organizations that we work with are United Way and the Food and Care Coalition. Timpview Student Government is going to go to United Way to help volunteer, um, get some stuff organized, um, to send out to families. And that’s honestly one of my favorite parts because afterwards we go to Taco Bell and have a Gov’sGiving, but yeah.

Wendy: Love it.

Cassidy: Yeah, we go on Monday, we help set up their Christmas Center in the United Way where they receive all their gifts. And so we do that. We get a tour of the United Way with the kids. And then our tradition is we go to Taco Bell all together after it’s been kind of fun to take over the whole Taco Bell, all by ourselves. It’s a fun tradition. And every year it’s like, are we going to Taco Bell? I’m like, yeah, we’re going to serve first but we will go to Taco Bell.

Wendy: That’s good. That’s awesome. Okay, so United Way and then the Food and Care Coalition, and how do they help support your project?

Caleb: I’m pretty sure that we buy like five rooms from them.

Cassidy: Yeah we’ve sponsored five rooms in the past. Yeah.

Wendy: Okay

Caleb:. Yeah, so those, um, are rooms that we give to families in need. Um, so, all the money that comes in from, like, Suffer Santa, we use to buy things like furniture, um, stuff for, like, cooking, and we just make the whole place look nice for those families.

Wendy: That’s awesome.

Cassidy: Did you guys get to tour it last time?

Sarah: I went, yeah.

Cassidy: Yeah, we went last year to see the rooms for the first time. They just finished their phase where they have all these different apartments that, Provo residents and other outside residents can come and stay temporarily when they’re in need or need a couple housing months or things like that. And we sponsored five rooms. From furniture, like Caleb said, kitchen supplies, bedding, we did five rooms. I won’t tell you how much money that cost, but it was a lot of money to sponsor five rooms. And we have a plaque outside each of those rooms with a T-Bird T on it showing that those are our rooms that we sponsor. And so the kids a few years ago got to take a tour of the place too and see it. And I think it’s great that they get to see. The community outreach and be connected to a community that serves like we serve at our school all the time, but to see it on a grander level, at a state level, I think it’s super powerful when they see the needs of others and go through these places and see how generous Provo City is to their residents. They look out for them.

Wendy: That’s incredible. So if you raise money and all of these kinds of things, how do you decide who gets it and how do you know what families need and how are you gathering all of that information?

Sarah: I think we adopt a few families as student government and so we’re given like a list of things that they need and want.

Wendy: Okay.

Sarah: Um, and so at the end of kind of like supper Santa season a few of us like go shopping, Wendy: okay

Cassidy: Your eyes lit up Sarah

Sarah: I really want to go this year because I haven’t been shopping before for these families And so I think it’ll be a really special experience but after like we buy these gifts and items we as student government, we like wrap them. And, um, like Caleb said before, we get to drop it off to some families as well.

Wendy: Okay. That’s awesome. So, so the shopping apparently is like a pretty exciting thing.

Cassidy: It’s fun to watch all these sweaters go out and you see them all just going down the different aisles and how excited they are to shop for someone else. I think it’s really fun.

Wendy: I think that’s really great. I, cause I think about shopping and that just sounds terrible. I don’t want to do that. So I love that you want to do that. And then I love that you wrap it all and then you get to deliver it. Right. And, and see the, um, I guess the results of all of the effort that you’ve put into it. Tell me how you divide up all the responsibilities with student government. Cause obviously not everybody can go shopping or everybody can do this. So. How do you, how do you maximize all of your efforts that way?

Sarah: So, uh, for the big events we talked about earlier, we kind of split off into different groups, so Caleb and I just kind of assigned everyone a job, and those are kind of like just big events that happen in school, but like for shopping for families, um, usually, a lot of people will volunteer and just be willing to do so because it’s kind of like something, uh, we do outside of class since we can’t use class time to go shopping. I wish we could. Um, but yeah, everyone is just super into it too. I’m trying to remember all the committees.

Cassidy: I know it’s hard, huh? That’s the thing, is to make something successful, we have so many different hands and so many different pots. Right, to address all these needs. You got like a stag committee.

Sarah: Yeah, we have a stag committee. We have a food nights committee.

Cassidy: You got your class collections.

Sarah: Class collections. The caroling group. The basketball game.

Caleb: And then, um, at the same time, everybody reaches out to their own businesses.

Sarah: Yeah.

Caleb: So, um, Sarah and I, we actually assigned five businesses to each member of student government. So there’s about 45 of us, I think that’s like 225 businesses.

Wendy: Wow.

Caleb: 225 local businesses.

Wendy: Mind blown.

Caleb: Yeah.

Cassidy: It’s impressive that the kids do that because I remember being a teenager and being terrified to talk to adults I didn’t know, especially managers or something like that. And so we, we kind of go over training. How do you approach a business? Like, what should you wear? Like, maybe you should wear your sweaters, and you should show up and introduce yourself, and we talk about what you can say. We have a business letter we’ve created that we can hand to them, and then the kids are responsible for following up. I’ve had kids, alumni, Student Gov alumni, come back years later, and they said the thing that made them most prepared for that next level was Sub for Santa. Because they had to get out of their comfort zone to do something good and it just made them realize, well, I can go talk to an adult that I don’t know, or I can ask for something and I can, I can learn to take a rejection and no and move forward. It’s not personal. And so I think the skills that they’re learning through just planning this is amazing. Like committee work, breaking it up, you know, serving someone else, doing something uncomfortable, like what good life skills they’re learning through this.

Wendy: It is really good. And, and I also like that with the committees now, not any one person is overwhelmed, right? Like, so it’s not like, if you had to be responsible for all of those things you wouldn’t be able to do any of your homework or anything you’d have like straight F’s afterwards . Yeah. But I also love that, that we’re teaching kids that, what’s the worst that can happen? What? Someone tells you no? Okay. Move on. Here we go. I mean, it sounds really terrible, right?

Cassidy: Yeah.

Wendy: But it really isn’t.

Cassidy: That’s where you grow. That’s the growth point.

Wendy: Yeah. Where you have to stretch yourself a little.

Cassidy: Yeah. These guys have done it three years. They’re pros, but I’m sure it’s even a little nerve wracking for them. Now they’re the leaders of it.

Wendy: That’s right.

Cassidy: They’ve been on the committees and now they’re leading it now, which is kind of fun to see them at the end of their senior year doing something really special.

Wendy: That’s awesome. How are some other ways in which you identify what is needed in the community besides like you’ve adopted some families and gotten some lists? Are there other ways in which you find out what those needs are?

Sarah: We have a social worker at our school who we work with. Um, she actually came by to our class, uh, class periods ago. And she gave us some, um, she showed us some stats for our school that really, I think, made us realize that Even those around us may need help even if like they don’t seem like it,

Wendy: Right?

Sarah: So I think it also really made it kind of personal to us because we just want to you know make sure that everyone has a good holiday and It’s not just Malia, the social worker at our school we work with, it’s just social workers in the school district as well.

Wendy: And so all of this money is going into the community of Provo, of Tempview, um, and which is unique in some ways because there are a lot of high schools that do Sub for Santa and they’ll pick an organization or something to donate the money to, and you’re not always sure it’s coming back into the community. So talk to me about why that’s really important, um, because it seems like if we’ve been doing this for a long time, you know, tie it into, you know, what you’re, what Malia was talking about and why that becomes so important to Timpview students and how that helps you in this process.

Caleb: Um, I think this is actually really important because a lot of the people that are, um, struggling or are in need are actually students that go to school with us. Um, so I think, um, a lot of the times their struggles are hidden, um, and we’re not necessarily trying to, um, make them, like, be transparent about anything, but we just want them to be, um, to feel, like, comfortable, um, coming to school and know that it’s somewhere safe for them and where we can provide for them.

Cassidy: Can I, can I give an example of what Caleb’s saying? Um, I think I told you guys this. Maybe they know because they’ve been in student government longer. A few years ago we had a student at Timpview. Um, they weren’t aware of the student by name or anything like that. I knew a little bit more of the situation as the adult, but this student was living with their family in a car in the Provo community and they were going into gyms and universities to get showers and things like that. And they heard this was a student coming to school every day and these kids have no idea. And later on, uh, four years later, this person graduates and speaks at graduation. And I’m, uh, I’m trying not to get emotional, but she shared, um, her experience of how that was a turning point for her to realize that her peers were on her side. And to then to sit out there and graduate with her peers, like what a beautiful moment. And I’m sitting there back there probably bawling and everyone else is like, what’s going on? And I just know this whole backstory, this beautiful story. And there’s like opportunities like that all over. I think the message that we’re trying to send with serving Provo first is that you don’t have to go far to serve and you don’t have to go to an organization. Like you can create the organization, you can create the city. And I think if everyone just looked around them first, I think this world would just be like, that sounds so corny, but this world would be better if you could just look at those around you and everyone just took care of them around them. And that’s what I want the kids to realize is you don’t need to go to a far flung country to serve. You don’t need to do that. You can serve someone right next door and will probably make just as much of an impact in the world as that person way far away. And I think that’s what’s beautiful about this program is look around, open your eyes, get off the phone, look, look up, and look at people’s eyes and see what’s going on.

Wendy: I think that’s a great message in the sense of that, you know, if we did truly take care of the people that were in our communities, we wouldn’t have to rely on these big, huge, you know, entities to come in and, and, and support in that way. We just need to learn how to take care for each other. Right? And you guys are learning that firsthand. So that’s pretty incredible. Tell me what your goal is for this year. What are you hoping to, uh, to accomplish?

Sarah: I mean, for me, it’s not really a goal. It’s just like more of something that I really want to do this year. It’s, um, again, going the Christmas shopping. I think I’ll be

Cassidy: Back to the shopping Sarah.

Sarah: I just think it’ll, it’ll be a really special opportunity to be able to shop for someone. Um, but I think just leaving off because, um, really we drop off the gifts kind of like right before we go off to break. So kind of going off to break knowing that you know, we played a part in as high schoolers to create a difference in our community and also kind of unifying our community as well. Because I think helping families, that’s super important, but that’s more important than like, I don’t know, the numbers, setting up specific numbers, I think, hopefully, we’ll be able to, student gov will be able to leave, um, for break with like a warm feeling.

Cassidy: Do you think about it on Christmas day, Sarah, Caleb?

Sarah: Yeah

Caleb: Yeah, I do.

Cassidy: Like, when you wake up in the morning, do you think like someone else is waking up really happy right now because of me?

Caleb Yeah.

Cassidy:That’s a cool feeling, right? Because it makes you think, the first thing you think when you wake up is not you, right? Someone else is getting that because of you.

Caleb: That’s nice.

Cassidy: That is a cool feeling, huh?

Wendy: Caleb, what’s your goal?

Caleb: Um, well, after like a few years in this, I really think that like helping as much families as we can, um, is my biggest goal because, well, mostly last year I, I went on one of those shopping sprees that, um, Sarah was talking about. Yeah, I went with a few other members. We were just shopping at Walmart. Um, and then we actually got the chance to deliver the gifts to the family. And, uh, that night, like, when we knocked on the door, and the mom opened the door, um, I don’t know, I’ll never forget when her face just, like, I don’t know, she smiled so big, I don’t know, and then, um, she’s like, come, come in, so we’re, like, setting the presents down. And then you can see like the little kids peeking through the doorway and they were all so smiley and I don’t know it really made a difference in like how I look at Christmas and the impact, um, the, the impact that Sub for Santa made for me.

Wendy: That’s incredible.

Cassidy:Yes, it is. It’s so cool.

Wendy: And I love that, that that’s what you’re thinking about like the numbers, sometimes we don’t want people to start thinking about, we’re doing this for the numbers. We’re doing this because of people because we care about individuals. We care about the people that we live with in this community and how important that is. So I’m glad to hear that. That’s really important. How do you think Sub for Santa changes? Your school, maybe even in the month of December, does it, does it change? Like the focus of students? Do you feel like it has a positive impact or on the school as a whole? Like clearly it’s impacting all of you that get to see the results of this. What is the impact that it’s having on, you know, the kids who go to the basketball game or go to the ugly Christmas sweater dance. What do they know and how do you share this information with them so that they understand the impact that they’re having?

Cassidy: Want me to start and then you guys can like…

Caleb: Yeah, yeah, if you want to go.

Cassidy: I know, I know those looks. Those are looks on test days.

Sarah: Oh dear.

Cassidy: Wait, what? It was testing. Uh, they were both in my class too. Um, I think it just turns the focus outward for that whole month, which I think is something that as a teenager, teenagers sometimes get a bad rap for being very inward focused, very self centered. And that’s not been my experience as a teacher in high school. And I think it’s fun to see that it doesn’t become an issue of money. Usually like when we’re at an event and we have to say, okay, $5, $10. It’s like, oh, really? Like, you know, you know, but then when we say guys, it’s first time for Santa, they’re like, here’s my $5, here’s $10, you know, like kids just start thinking more about others during that time. And it’s fun to kind of center around all those, instead of the holiday parties and things like that, have them start thinking of others. We tried to share as much of the information with the the student body as we can. We’re inviting a lot of groups to go caroling with us this year. We’re inviting the choir and orchestra, the football players. This is their official invite right now. We are going to reach out to them though. But we want to like make this more of a, not a student government activity, but a student government led activity that everyone participates are in, right? Like, we’ll lead it out, but we want people to find, um, like, uh, what’s the word I’m getting? We want people to find, like, a niche in this that’s theirs. That they’re like, I, you know, I, this stag’s mine, and I want to be a part of that. And I think in future years, if we reach out to different groups, like, how can we invite the choir to participate?

Sarah: Um, so for the basketball game, um, During halftime,

Cassidy: We laugh because it’s fun.

Sarah: We, um, We have like the student versus teacher basketball group and student gov to reach out to a different groups at Timpview, so like dance company, dance crew, some clubs. Even the like the actual basketball team to like perform something. It’s really fun to see what they come up with because either it’s like really good or it’s like something super silly.

Wendy: Right.

Sarah: And so it’s just really fun to see everyone kind of come together during this time of the year. Um, but also knowing that this is, you know, something that we’re doing for Sub for Santa. So like you’re killing, or not, what is it? Um

Cassidy: Killing two birds with one stone?

Sarah: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, yeah, because like you’re having fun, but you also know that you’re doing something good.

Cassidy: Yeah, in previous years we’ve had even like the woodshop class has made us ornaments, or the sewing classes made us cloth napkin sets, or placemats. We’ve had the art class make ornaments or name tags for the gifts. And so we’ve tried to like reach out to as many classes as possible to say, here’s a way you can be involved and have your place in it.

Wendy: Oh, that’s incredible.

Cassidy: It gets, it takes some creativity, but we’ve been able to do it over the years. Include a lot of people.

Wendy: That’s good. Anything you wanna add to that, Caleb?

Caleb: Um, I mean they pretty much covered it. , I, I feel like during December the student body’s just a lot happier. I don’t know if it’s ’cause they’re excited to leave . , but it could be

Cassidy: Back to Caleb.

Caleb: Yeah. I mean, um, but I feel like it really is because we get everybody so involved and everybody knows that they’re getting to help people in some way or another, but yeah.

Wendy: I love the, um, comment about that it’s student government led. It’s not, it’s not you guys just doing it and, and trying to kind of convince people to be a part of it. It’s like, no, here’s how we’re actively getting everybody to be involved with us and to recognize that it’s part of what it means to be a Timpview Thunderbird, right? Like this is who we are. This is what we want to accomplish. So is there anything else you want to share with us? If I want to donate, money to this or something. How do I do that?

Sarah: I guess if you’re a local business, you could always contact our student government advisor, Ms. Baker. Shout out to her. Um, um, we have a website,timpviewsubforsanta.weebly. com, um, and we have all the information there. And also just kind of things we’ve done over the years as well. So you can learn more about the program and how others can help.

Cassidy: I want to share a cool way you can participate if you haven’t done this is one of the ways we partner with United Way is we do adoptions of families or individuals. And that’s kind of a cool thing. We obviously as a student government will adopt a bunch of families. We have teachers that do this, but a lot of families will reach out to us and say I want to adopt a family for my family to shop for. And it’s become really personal to them. And I have like one particular teacher that will do it every year now. He goes, this is the best thing. I want kids, you know, kids in the family to be the same age as my kids. So they have to go pick it out and be very deliberate about that. And it’s become a tradition for a lot of families to do it. And if it’s not a whole family, someone wants to adopt, they can adopt an individual. Um, we also have people in the special needs community that you can adopt and support. And we have some of our senior citizen populations that you can adopt and support. There’s like so many cool things that United Way does to reach out to them. When I was in high school, I participated in something like this and we had a family through Thanksgiving through Christmas. And I can remember as a teenager, I was probably these kids age, we went, my dad and I, went to go pick up this mother to go shopping. And I remember telling my dad, I go, I thought the point was, like, us to go shopping. Like, you know, I thought we were supposed to do this. And he goes, well, I want the mom to pick out the gifts. You know, to see her to be a part of that. And I still remember that as a young teenager. The fact that my father was more concerned about restoring the faith of that mother than my faith in myself. And I think about that all the time, that sometimes we don’t get to deliver and we don’t get to see the end results because we’re trying more than anything to restore the family.

Wendy: Yeah.

Cassidy: To a whole.

Wendy: Yeah.

Cassidy: And make the mom and dad the hero. Like, we don’t want to be the hero. We want to be the secret elves that no one sees. Right? Every now and then we get to kind of be the, the hero and come in there, but if my kids never saw that, I wish they could always see all the little stories that they end with and how it ends.

Wendy: Right.

Cassidy: But they don’t always get to see that. And I still remember making that mom and how and having her going through the store and picking out things and just how important that was for her that she got to do it. And I think that’s a big thing, um, Bill Hulterstrom at United Way has emphasized that our, this shouldn’t be the best Christmas they’ve ever had in their life. This should be a good Christmas that we help support, but the best thing that we can do is help these parents get back on their feet, help them out long term. And sometimes our Sub for Santa goes beyond December. Sometimes our funds aren’t always used in December. We’ll save some funds. We’ve been able to provide glasses for students. Um, we’ve been able to provide dental work. Health care work. A lot of amazing things throughout the year with social workers that will reach out to us, like, do you have some Sub for Santa funds left? I’m like, sure do. Like, Santa and Christmas is not a December thing for Sub for Santa, right? It’s, that’s when we collect, but, and that’s when our big show is. But there’s needs all 11 other months. And so I think that’s really cool that like these guys get to, get to be the little minions, get to be the little secret elves, you know, and sometimes we get to be the hero, but if they learn that, you know, it’s not about being the hero, but by letting the family be the hero, then that’s a win for me, like in my book. That’s my goal I guess.

Wendy: So if I wanted to adopt a family, I would just contact United Way.

Cassidy: You could go through our website or United Way’s website. They’re both linked and you click on like adopt a family or sponsor a family. And you can even on their dropdown, how did you hear about us? You can click on Timpview and we collect the data of how many people we’re sending their way to help. Because at the end we can say, Oh, we had. 60 families adopted like, and that’s awesome. Like we want, we’re, we’re concerned with that number, the families and the people like Caleb said. Like how many people can we help? And so we keep that data, but it’s a fun way to get involved. I did it and I’ve always remembered it and I guess I’m still doing it now.

Wendy: Yes, you are. Right? You’ve made it part of your life’s work.

Cassidy: I don’t know how it doesn’t change you to help people like this. It does.

Wendy: That’s incredible. Caleb, what about you?

Caleb: Well, if you’re a little hungry, we always have those food nights that you can come to.

Wendy: And where would I find all of that information?

Caleb: Um, so we’ll post it on the Timpview Instagram.

Wendy: Okay, perfect.

Caleb: And yeah, we’ll let you guys know. And then if you have a kid that goes to Timpview, uh, give them some money to donate. Yeah, just a little. Um, but yeah, just really anything that you want to do to help these local families is really helpful.

Cassidy: If you have something to donate, we’ll find a home for it. I promise that. We’ve, we’ve had the, I told the kids this story the other day, like, cause last year we had a mother come in that had an awful miscarriage. And she had all these baby clothes she had bought and she’s like, I just can’t have these in my house anymore. And I, I, I, my heart went out to her and she gave us this huge box. And then the next day we had a mother who had the same, a boy and didn’t have any clothes. It just like this, these miracles happen where these like stories aligned where a heartache is turned into a triumph. And it’s like, it’s amazing to see. And so if you have something, you feel like you could donate new, a gift, if you’ve never used something, maybe there’s a gift card you never use. I got this $100 gift card and I need to use it. Donate at Sub for Santa and we’ll find a great home for it. We always find homes for everything. So if it’s new, not used, we will find something for it, family for it.

Wendy: Alright, so we can just reach out to Cassidy Baker. She is the, uh, teacher and advisor for student government at Timpview High School or you can also go to timpviewsubforsanta.weebly. com. And that’s where you can get most of the information and find out more about this incredible program. I’m so excited to see what you guys are going to do this year, and I cannot wait to watch the basketball game.

Caleb: It’ll be awesome.

Wendy: I am, I am.

Caleb: Yeah, we’ll be watching you on the floor.

Wendy: Okay, that’s fair. That’s fair.

Cassidy: Okay. And you need to lean it towards the teacher’s side a little bit.

Wendy: Yeah, okay, that’s fair. Yeah. Teachers will get it for sure. So I can’t wait. I can’t wait. That’s going to be a fun night. So thanks everybody for being part of this.

Cassidy:Thank you.

Caleb: Yeah, of course.

Sarah: Thank you.

Thank you for joining me for this week’s episode of what’s up with the soup. As always, all episodes will be available wherever you get your podcasts. If you have any topics or questions you would like us to discuss on the podcast, please email us at podcast@provo.edu. Please be sure to join us next week for a new episode of What’s Up with the Sup.

Have a great weekend, everyone.