This Valentine’s Day over 30 Wayland children ages 3-11 participated in the Wayland High School Holiday Helpers day camp to help the homeless. One of the activities of the camp was to make fleece blankets for a local homeless shelter. Through this hands-on activity, even the youngest among us was able learn about the value of helping others. All profits from the camp are being donated to the Greater Boston Food Bank.
The Holiday Helpers organization was founded by Wayland High School students Caroline Bache, Natalie Constantine, and Kylie Ham as a part of the WHS course called Entrepreneurship and Business Management (EBM). EBM students start real businesses by finding and solving some problem in our community. In this case, the founders started last November by focusing on the problem of relieving holiday stress. The team’s first idea was to offer a gift wrapping service, but they learned through customer interviews that gift wrapping was less of a source of stress than was the general lack of time to get the sometimes overwhelming collection of holiday tasks done. Based on that feedback, the team came up with the idea of trying to save parents time by taking care of their children for several hours on a weekend day. The first camp was run on December 21, and was a big hit with parents and kids alike.
The meaning of the name “Holiday Helpers” has evolved along with the camp itself. Originally intended to describe the value that the camp provides for parents, the name now has the added meaning of a camp where the kids who visit become “holiday helpers” themselves. In that sense, the camp aims to provide more than just babysitting – namely an opportunity for even the youngest to be exposed to the idea of helping other people.
The camp is run entirely by a volunteer staff of high school students, so the only camp expenses are food (one meal is provided to camp-goers), craft materials, and custodial fees. The recent Valentine’s Day camp brought in over $700 in revenue.
The founders Ham, Bache, and Constantine hold the positions of Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operations Officer, and Chief Marketing Officer, respectively. Other members of the Holiday Helpers executive team are Alexandra Kunen, Chief People Officer, and Elizabeth Flagg, Chief Financial Officer. The girls tying fleece blankets in the lead photo are (left to right) Anna Varney, Ava Renneker, and Georgia Blackburn. Other photos: Spinning in front of the snowman is Anna Varney, and showing off the finished fleece blanket are Eva Chausse and Ida Leven.
To learn more about the Holiday Helpers organization, please email waylandholidayhelpers@gmail.com.
