Apollo Middle School staff helps students, families in need

Principal RoseMary Rosas nominated her staff for always pitching in to help students in need.

“My staff is selfless and always comes through to help our children in need, oftentimes using their last bit of money to help,” Rosas wrote in her nomination letter.

The majority of the students at Apollo receive free or reduced-price lunches, and many of them live in single-parent homes or with grandparents, Rosas said.

Earlier this week, school staff members started a penny drive to help collect money to put together food boxes for a student’s family. They have also helped the family with blankets and clothing and even donated a table and chairs.

Last week, they helped out a student who needed a pair of new shoes.

“Times are tough for families in our area, and we recently came across a student with a huge hole under his shoe and through his sock and that were falling apart at the seams,” Rosas wrote. “He was wearing the only pair of shoes he had and could not afford a new pair.”

Rosas emailed her staff about the student and within 24 hours they had collected four pairs of new shoes, two bags of socks and money to buy another pair of shoes. The extra shoes were given to other students in need.

“We have given three pairs of those shoes away thus far, and the smile it brings to our student’s face is a gift within itself,” Rosas said.

For one student whose family does not have an oven, staff members cooked a turkey and side dishes and delivered the meal to the family on Thanksgiving.

If a student is without a jacket or backpack, Rosas will notify her staff, and the next day multiple items are left anonymously in the front office, she said.

These acts are only a handful of ways the staff has helped struggling students and families, Rosas said.

“There’s not just one time, it’s like every other week there’s something going on here, we always have a family that comes to us for help,” Rosas said. “And they (school employees) just immediately go into action.”