CAYCE, S.C. — A school and some local churches are helping students bring gifts to their family for the holidays.
C.R. Hall, the Principal of New Bridge Academy, says a Santa's Workshop has been set up at the school that will help kids find their parents, siblings, grandparents and guardians gifts for the holiday season.
"We got some kind donations from our folks out in the community, local churches and just community members, and we just saw the blessing that they put upon us and saw it as an opportunity to help our kids," said Hall.
This is the first time the school has had something like this for the students during the holidays.
"Our kids come from a variety of situations and some of them aren't so positive so being able to help them bring joy and happiness at the house is just one of the things we wanted to do for them," explained Hall.
Students will be able to choose from gifts like stuffed animals, clothes, balls, Bath and Body Works products and more.
Part of the idea for Santa's Workshop stems from an existing program the school already has called DIGZ. The school calls it a dignity shop where kids can get some of the things they need on a daily basis.
"Sometimes our kids come and they're not quite ready for school, whether they need help with a toothbrush, toothpaste, shaving cream, body wash, anything they might need," said Hall.
The DIGZ Shoppe also includes pantry food items as well.
After having this program in place, the school and churches wanted to expand on that and include Santa's Workshop this year.
The principal hopes this will make a difference for families during the holidays this year.
"I just hope it brings joy and a blessing to their household during the holiday season. It's been a tough year on everyone, it's just been crazy with COVID and everything else and trying to make the school year work and finding our new normal and here's an opportunity to bring a little normal back to everybody's life."
Next week, students will be able to shop at the workshop and pick out gifts for their families.
If people would like to bring in donations for gifts students can give to their family, they can drop them off at New Bridge Academy. Some of the items the program needs at this time is board and card games that families can play together as a group.