| Prairie
League adopts Syringa Hospice for Christmas gifts
Last year the Prairie High School girls' service group (Prairie League) adopted SGH hospice as the program they wanted to buy gifts for the Christmas season. "I couldn't believe the amount of gifts they came up with," said Cindy Higgins, MSW, who works with Syringa General Hospital Hospice. "I had given a brief description of the family members, without divulging names in order to keep anonymity." This year, Prairie League decided to adopt the hospice program again. Under the direction of teacher Colleen Sonnen, they gathered the brief descriptions of 12 families. The Prairie Middle School faculty joined in and instead of doing their usual faculty gift exchange, they donated toward the hospice program as well. Then several members of the school board also donated to the cause. "Jerry Richardson, PHS shop teacher and his students made all the ornaments for the Hospice Tree of Lights, and also made a couple of the gifts," Higgins explained. "One of the hospice families was in need of wood for the winter, so several teachers and spouses, and middle school students delivered two loads of wood to the family." Presents were distributed by the hospice staff and/or hospice volunteers. "The outpouring of kindness by the Prairie school community has meant more to these families than anything they could have wrapped in those presents," Higgins explained. "These families are going through very, very difficult times and they were deeply moved at the thought of unknown people thinking of them in particular."
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