With the holidays right around the corner, students who participated in the Ventura Unified School District (Ventura Unified) Stocking Drive won’t receive coal in their stockings this year.

Foothill Tech’s Associated Student Body (ASB) partnered with Child Hope Services in an effort to gather stockings for foster teens in Ventura Unified.

ASB President Abby Sourwine ‘19 described the drive as an opportunity for students to “give back to other kids like us. Not all foster families can afford to give their foster teens gifts.”

Participants are given age and sex demographics, for example, “13- to 15-year-old female,” and are allowed to pick what goes into the stocking, with a few exceptions.

“You’re not supposed to do food containing common allergies, or clothing because we don’t know their sizes,” Sourwine commented.

Other than that, each stocking a student makes is unique, filled with toys, games and gizmos that they feel would fit their given demographics.

A total of 67 stockings were donated by Foothill this year. “Our goal was 100, so that was a bit of a bummer,” said Sourwine, “but the company, Child Hope Services, is always appreciative and was able to reach their company goal.”

Sourwine stated that next year, ASB’s focus will be more promotion for the drive to the student body.

“I know a lot of people who would be happy to give, if they knew where it was going,” Sourwine concluded.

Editor’s Note: Abby Sourwine is a staff member of the Foothill Dragon Press. She was not involved in the reporting or publishing of this article.