Hands to Hearts: Senior Ainsley Pyle has managed the Christmas program at non-profit organization Hands to Hearts since her freshman year

Senior Ainsley Pyle scanned through the aisles of T.J. Maxx, reading off the long list of Christmas wishes, hand-picking gifts and crossing them off as she went.

But in between the slime kits, Pokemon cards and unicorns, are requests for pillows, winter coats, paper towels and blankets — basic necessities they often can’t afford.

“I’ve always woken up on Christmas morning and had gifts waiting for me,” Pyle said. “So it makes me really happy to know that these kids will wake up on Christmas morning and get tangible gifts to open [as well].”

Pyle has been the manager of the Christmas program at non-profit organization Hands to Hearts since her freshman year, after being asked by her mom to take it over when the previous manager had left.

She receives wishlists from a coordinator at Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools with blanks for children’s ages, clothing size and what they want for Christmas. From there, Pyle assigns the families to people who sign up to “adopt” a family to buy gifts for. The sponsors then drop off their gifts at the KCK District Office where they are delivered to the families.

For the families who aren’t “adopted,” Pyle, her family and her friends go shopping for up to eight hours straight to buy the rest of the gifts with donation money and leave with a 4-foot long receipt.

“Even though I don’t [actually] know these families, I feel like I know them personally in a way, because I’m seeing their whole personalities come through on these lists,” Pyle said. “Especially for the teenagers, seeing them ask for the exact same things I’m asking for, it really does slap you in the face.”

Pyle’s grandmother Marilyn Jahnke founded Hands to Hearts in 2009 after coming back from a mission trip in South Africa and seeing the financial struggles of the children at schools there. Upon her return, she sat around a table at a coffee shop talking with her mission group.

“The discussion went to, ‘We have children 20 minutes from us that go to bed hungry at night,’” Jahnke said. “So we began looking at what we could do about that.”

Hands to Hearts started the Christmas program six years after being founded. The KCK Public Schools recognized the need for gifts and reached out to Hands to Hearts, according to Jahnke.

“I think you just have to make yourself look around,” Jahnke said. “It’s so easy to get into our own little life and not look beyond and realize that 20 minutes from us, there are children who don’t have a coat.”

When Pyle has free time at school, she often manages the program by inputting information from her flood of emails from family sponsors to Google Sheets and Docs through her computer.

From being asked to manage the program as a 14-year-old, to developing an understanding for teenagers who aren’t as fortunate as her, the program has become a big part of her life.

“When [my mom] she asked me [to help], I was like, ‘Yeah, sure, why not?’” Pyle said. “But now [the program is] like my child. Nobody else touches it, it’s mine. I would not give it up for anything because it’s so special to me now.”