As the semester comes to an end, the preceding weeks also mark the closing of this year’s toy drive, organized by Edina High School’s Student Council. For the first time since 2008, EHS students have been bringing in toys to their classrooms in order to be redistributed to low-income families across the Twin Cities. All toys were collected on Wednesday, December 10th, and passed onto VEAP, or Volunteers Enlisted to Assist People, an organization providing services to meet the immediate needs of families across Minnesota.

“About 800 toys were collected this year, with almost 700 dollars in monetary donations and 32 giftcards!” said Student Council member and junior Anna Cerf. “We even got more than the fire department!”

Once all toys have been collected, VEAP will create a Holiday Store, where parents and kids can come in to do their Christmas shopping for toys and gifts. The catch? All items in the store are free.

The toy drive didn’t occur, however, without some friendly competition here at EHS. The homerooms of Ms. Kinner, Ms. Kingsbury, and Mr. Dahlman collected the most toys, and received donuts and hot chocolate as prizes on Friday, Dec. 12th. The homerooms of Ms. Halker, Mr. Van Someren, Mr. Franske, and Mr. Roddy came in close, and received cupcakes during second hour on Friday.

The event ended up being a success, and it couldn’t have been done without the help of EHS staff and students. “The school did amazing this year, I’m really happy with how everything turned out! I think we made a really big impact!” said Cerf.