Five VTSU Castleton college students were sitting on little chairs at a little table seconds after 10 little kids at the Vermont Achievement Center went on a present-opening rampage.

As they sat and chatted while the excited kids were eating their ornate post-present cupcakes, 4-year-old Kaisley approached the college girls.

In seconds, she was chatting and the college students fawned over her cuteness in her mini-mouse dress. And seconds after that, she was on the lap of student Emily Ely.

They both were in heaven.

The odd thing was, leaders at Vermont Achievement Center said Kaisley is one of the shyest kids there. I was blown away by that because she acted like she fit, and my students loved her immediately.

For 10 years in a row, Castleton college students and I have raised money to make a better Christmas for area folks in need.

This year, the team raised $1,660 dollars, shopped for and wrapped $1,500 in presents for 12 kids and hosted a snack-filled party at VAC attended by 10 of the 12 kids.

The passing out of the gifts was magical this year. My students were really involved, some wearing reindeer antlers and another wearing a Santa hat a former student gave to me.

They interacted with the excited little people, getting right down on the floor with them, as they continued piling up gifts.

Then the frenzied ripping commenced.

Paper was flying, the volume got higher, and my students were right in the middle of it all – smiling at the result of their handiwork.

Christmas music blared from the TV as the yule log burned bright.

There were monster trucks and dinosaurs, an electronic keyboard and Barbies.

And we got clothes too, of course.

When wrapping, we put some clothes together because the students who shopped with me had visions of outfits that had to go together. We also combined some with socks and other necessities, because what little kid wants to open clothes, right?

You could tell their parents were happy about those practical gifts though.

I think this year was also a little more special for me because the shopping day at Target was more fun than usual.

The students, all women, were roaming down memory lane of past Christmases and the gifts they got – and didn’t get.

“I like low-key still want this,” one excitedly said in the Barbie section, I think referring to a camper.

I loved that. They had child-like enthusiasm.

Also this year, we split into two teams too, which made it go a little quicker, though it was still two-and-a-half hours in a store and four shopping carts full.

Then I rewarded them with lunch at O’Toole’s and they headed on their way back to campus.

A couple days later we turned a Castleton classroom into a min-Santa’s workshop with a dozen rolls of wrapping paper, four pairs of scissors, name tags, bows and piles of presents with a name of a child on each pile. Christmas music blared from the computer to set the mood.  

The first year we did this, 2015, when I was told of a family in need in Castleton. It was a single mom with two boys. We hatched a plan that on Christmas morning, she would take the boys for a walk, leave us a key in the barbeque grill, and the students and I would swoop into the home, pack the tree with presents and be there when they returned for the big surprise.

Mind you, this is Christmas morning and here are a handful of college students who temporarily shelved their family Christmas plans to give to this family.

When people crap on college students these days, or college in general, tell them that story please.

Just like at VAC on Wednesday, the students that day were down on the floor with those two boys as they opened present after present. There was enough money raised that year to also help pay off the mother’s delinquent electricity bill, after she told me she was fielding threats to turn off the power.

I drove home that day so fulfilled. Like arguably the best Christmas of my life.

I’m sure my students did too.

In the years after that, we raised funds for women in kids in a women’s shelter, children of at-risk teen moms, and during COVID we helped with Thanksgiving meals at the local pantry.  

But the VAC party offers a great chance for my students to interact with less-fortunate kids and see the fruits of their effort, so we’ve made this the annual plan these days.

I loved was seeing the smiling faces on Ely, Pearl Bellomo, Gabby Blanchard, Maddie Lindgren and Lauren Fotten as they reveled in the fun the kids were having. Jess Emery helped shop with us, but the party was on her birthday and friends made plans for her. All play a big role with the Castleton Spartan student newspaper.

After the snacks, and the ripping, some of the boys were playing with their cars on the floor, one girl was crying because her mom told her to wait to open a doll until she gets home and Kaisley, well, she was either on Ely’s lap or running to the other end of the room and back to Ely’s lap as the other college students smiled on.

Soon they’d be saying thanks and waving goodbye and we headed out to the Castleton van with warm hearts.

Thanks to all who donated to make it happen and to the staff of the Castleton Spartan for pulling it off.

I’d still be shopping or cowering under a shopping cart someplace if it weren’t for them!