Red Bag Delivery: A group of junior boys focus their Client Connected Project towards Red Bags KC, a gift-giving nonprofit

With the holidays just around the corner, juniors Carter Santa, Will Galloway, Henry Zwillenberg, Vince Kopp and Sonny Panis prepare their junior English class Client Connected Project with Red Bags KC, a local nonprofit organization targeted towards low-income children and families.

Through standard English classes, students group up and choose nonprofits to advertise through social media, with their persuasive writing and informational unit.

“The point [of the project] is to show students that the skills that you learn in ELA are applicable in the real world,” junior standard English teacher Brandi Krahulik said. 

After the project was announced, Santa proposed his group work with Red Bags KC, a charity that gathers donations to give gifts to children in need. A family-friend connection enabled his group to meet with a leading volunteer in the organization to discuss their plans for the project. 

Red Bags KC volunteers gather donations, shop for childrens’ wishlists and drop off gifts on Christmas morning, making sure no children are overlooked.

The group then began assuming their roles, from designing the social media posts to overseeing the Client Connected Project as a whole. Santa led the project, while Kopp oversaw due dates to make sure that all assignments were turned in.

But due-dates aside, the boys all noted that they took more away from the project than just the grade. The students are truly able to see how the English curriculum can be applied to real life. Thanks to their help, kids in need will be getting presents for Christmas that may not have made it into their hands before.

“I’ve always seen nonprofits as a good thing, but I haven’t really known much information about nonprofits as a whole,” Zwillenberg said. “It’s really just joyful. It’s really cool what [Red Bags KC] is doing.”

Kopp added he found it admirable that although volunteers have their own lives, they still set aside their own time to help out for those kids without presents. The students’ work was only a small part of the larger efforts that go into Red Bags KC’s mission.

“It definitely makes me realize that here at East, the majority of kids are really fortunate,” Santa said. “We think it’s normal to have all these gifts and experience the holiday season the way we do… but there’s a lot of kids out there that aren’t as fortunate as we are.”