DAYTON — A pair of second grade teachers wanted to teach their students the joy of giving and a Miami Valley Church stepped in to help them teach that lesson. They also pulled off a special surprise for loved ones in the lives of students.
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News Center 7′s Xavier Hershovitz says for the last couple of weeks students and teachers at Northridge Elementary School have been working to pull off a surprise for their parents. Students did not know the parents would not be the only ones surprised inside.
“It was just an idea we had,” said Trisha Baxter, a second grade teacher at Northridge.
The idea was to have parents fill the gym on Monday morning, according to Baxter and Chelsea Hewitt, both teachers at Northridge Elementary School.
Hershovitz says one-by-one, teachers shared the videos of their students to their parents and the kids were asked to choose someone special and a gift they’d like to give them.
Then, the teachers asked the kids what they would want but told kids this.
“My teacher said she only had enough money for one gift and I chose my mom,” said Kendall Rohrer, a second grader.
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She was not alone in choosing someone else over herself.
“They all chose someone else,” Baxter said.
All 38 second graders chose someone else to get a gift over themselves and then one-by-one, they filed into the gym with that gift they picked out for their loved one thanks to Southbrook Church in Miamisburg.
“She always loves, takes cares of me a lot,” Kendall said. “So I thought well she gives me gifts, I should get her a gift.”
Kendall picked out a coffee maker for her mom, Sidney.
“That’s very thoughtful,” said Sidney Rohrer, Kendall’s mom.
Hershovitz says there were very few dry eyes in the gym with many so proud of their Second Grader’s choice to honor them with a gift. But that was not all.
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Their kindness was quickly rewarded with each child getting that very gift they wanted but turned down to give instead.
“Very surprised,” said Kendall. She got Legos shed wanted to add to her collection but it’s the lesson in giving she’s really most excited about taking home.
“It matters more to me that I’m giving other people a gift than myself,” she said.
They all hope that lesson extends outside of this second grade classroom.
“That should be all of our reaction,” Baxter told Hershovitz. “How can I help someone else? What kindness can I spread? Because these seven and eight-year-olds, they’ve got it. So, what’s so hard for us adults?
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