Christmas music blasted, greeters wearing Santa hats welcomed shoppers and a line of antsy customers — many clutching shopping lists and wads of cash — extended outside and around the corner Thursday.
Christmas music blasted, greeters wearing Santa hats welcomed shoppers and a line of antsy customers — many clutching shopping lists and wads of cash — extended outside and around the corner Thursday.
But this wasn’t the mall or the scene at a big-box retailer on Black Friday. This was Waiakea High School’s 10th annual Santa’s Workshop event, a holiday fundraiser put on each year by the school’s Student Government Association.
The event aims to give students from Waiakea’s feeder schools — Waiakeawaena and Waiakea elementary schools — an opportunity to purchase low-cost presents for their friends and family. Proceeds are donated to local charity. This year’s event raised $2,000 that will be donated to Big Brothers Big Sisters Hawaii.
“It’s a nice, fun thing they can do to give back to their family and friends at affordable prices,” said Kiani Nishimoto, 17, Waiakea High student body president. “And I think that’s what we wanted. We wanted to keep it affordable for the students and give them a chance to buy reasonably priced gifts, usually for their parents. They don’t (typically) get the opportunity to go shopping (alone) for mom and dad so it’s just meant to help them give something nice for Christmas.”
Students, staff and retirees from all three schools donated the hundreds of DVDs, toys, jewelry and household knickknacks on cafeteria tables-turned store shelves.
Most items were priced cheap — 25 cents and up — and gift-wrapped by Waiakea High students free of charge. Parents were instructed to wait outside while Waiakea High students acted as “personal shoppers” and helped the youngsters find gifts and budget accordingly.
About 500 elementary students participated this year, Nishimoto said. About 120 Waiakea High students volunteered to help.
“My uncle goes fishing and my sibling likes stickers,” mused shopper Alasha Anderson, 10, flipping through a pile of decorative collectibles as personal shopper Jenica Xavier, 15, watched closely.
Xavier, a Waiakea sophomore who also volunteered last year, said she enjoys working with children and helping them stay on budget. In the past, she’s even donated her own money to shoppers who come up short.
“It helps us get to know the little kids and the ones coming to Waiakea High (eventually) — we don’t get to interact with them a lot,” Xavier said. “I have three siblings and I enjoy helping kids. So, anything that deals with kids, I’m OK with.”
Swarms of parents waited outside the cafeteria Thursday, some peaking through windows to get an early glimpse at their presents. Parents Emily and Andrew Dobbs chose to wait back — “I’d rather have it be a surprise,” Emily Dobbs said.
The Dobbs family has participated in the event for three years. Santa’s Workshop gifts are typically “the first presents under the tree.” Dobbs said. Last year, Dobbs said she was gifted a desk paperweight and a turtle pillow.
Waiakea Elementary School dad Curtis Bernosky, who chaperoned his daughter, Tischelle, 7, to the shopping frenzy on Thursday, said he enjoys watching all the kids “do their own shopping.”
“They can get in there without the pressure from parents or brothers or sisters and they get to use their own mind,” he said. “You know the gift you’re getting is actually from them. They picked it out, it wasn’t pushed on them and it wasn’t their brother or sister saying ‘Oh, let’s get that.’ They got to pick it out with their own little heart.”
Email Kirsten Johnson at kjohnson@hawaiitribune-herald.com.