Market a Holiday Tradition for Perkins Elementary
With the Christmas, Hanukkah and New Year’s holidays fast approaching, the Perkins market has become a regular stop for students to find gifts.
An exclusive holiday boutique is wrapping up its limited run today at Perkins Elementary School where the PTA sponsored a shop that offered students a convenient and affordable opportunity to buy gifts for their families or friends during the last week of classes before Winter Break.
As holiday traditions go this one’s a real keeper. With Christmas, Hanukkah and New Year’s fast approaching, the Perkins market has become a regular stop for students to find gifts.
Class by class, everyone gets to shop. Forgot your money? Your credit’s good with the Penguin PTA which is happy to issue a couple of “Perkins Bucks” so no one goes home empty-handed.
Beth Bright (yes, Bright, as in “making spirits…”) is a veteran Perkins PTA elf and one of the coordinators of this year’s sale.
“Every year we go out and hit the after-Christmas sales,” she said while catching her breath between grade invasions Tuesday afternoon. “As a Perkins mom I’ve received many keepsake gifts from this shop over the years.”
Memories at bargain prices; such a deal.
The school library is converted into retail space for two days in December every year. The hallway right outside is lined with volunteer gift-wrappers. This operation runs like clockwork. It has to. There’s a schedule to keep! Just past 1:00 it was time for a class of kindergarteners, rookies, to get their shopping done. Fifth graders, old pros, guide them around to make sure they stay on budget. Everyone is issued a price sheet, a marker and a shopping bag as they enter.
“I’ve got 10 monies,” announced one cowboy-booted kindergartener upon his excited arrival.
They were exactly what it cost him to get gifts for his parents and brother. From the high end table (prices range from two bits to six bucks) he snagged a good-sized piggybank for his mom that looked really impressive after it was wrapped. She’s gonna be curious when that package comes home.
Most of the gift-wrappers are parents of shoppers so sometimes a little stealth is called for so the cat doesn’t get let out of the shopping bag in the checkout line.
All sales are cash only and final, naturally, which doesn’t matter because every customer is a satisfied one. Besides practice with addition/subtraction and handwriting (the shoppers make out the gift tags while their haul is being wrapped) everybody gets in on the joy of giving.
Whatever doesn’t sell this year is stored in the PTA’s stockroom. Let’s face it, holiday decorations never go out of style. And pencils, socks and cookie platters – those will keep too.
By the time you read this it will be too late to get in on Black Tuesday at Perkins – this year. But, in a similar spirit the Rider Shop at Roosevelt High School is extending its regular hours tonight from 5:00-8:00 p.m and offering holiday refreshments along with free gift wrapping in case you’ve got any Roughrider types on your list.
As Teddy Roosevelt liked to say this time of year: “Charge!”
