{"id":75417,"date":"2025-12-19T12:40:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T12:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/75417\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T12:40:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T12:40:07","slug":"student-led-thrift-shop-provides-free-holiday-gifts-at-staten-island-high-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/75417\/","title":{"rendered":"Student-led thrift shop provides free holiday gifts at Staten Island high school"},"content":{"rendered":"

STATEN ISLAND, NY — As the holiday season continues, some young Staten Islanders find themselves unable to purchase gifts for their friends and family. <\/p>\n

To help bridge this gap and support their community, volunteer students and staff at Ralph R. McKee Career and Technical Education High School in St. George held a free thrift shop on Wednesday and Thursday for the school community.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been doing this for two years now, because there\u2019s some kids at McKee that can\u2019t really buy their own things, and we just want to help the community too,\u201d shared Elijah, a thrift shop volunteer and junior at the high school. <\/p>\n

\"McKeeRalph R. McKee CTE High School’s volunteer-run shop provides clothing to peers.Advance\/SILive | Nicolette Cavallaro<\/p>\n

During their lunch periods, students were able to come down to the auditorium shop and find clothing for themselves or loved ones. The shop featured a range of sizes and age groups, and even a customization station, where students could iron on designs to their new attire. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe kids were responsible for sorting, organizing everything, getting everything set up, putting all this together and then maintaining it, setting everything up again, restocking and doing it all,\u201d shared Alexa Messina, an English teacher at the high school. <\/p>\n

All clothing was donated by staff and students, and there are plans to donate what is left to local shelters, in an effort to continue the effort throughout the local community.<\/p>\n

\"McKeeRalph R. McKee CTE High School’s volunteer-run shop provides clothing to peers.Advance\/SILive | Nicolette Cavallaro<\/p>\n

The student volunteers, led by Messina and Katrina Brady, have taken on leadership roles in community outreach through a school-wide initiative known as AVID.<\/p>\n

AVID, which stands for Advancement Via Individual Determination, is a premiere college and career readiness program that focuses on emphasizing student agency and community involvement. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they graduate, our AVID advocates typically have a lot of community service hours banked because we get so involved. Recently, we just went to a nursing home,\u201d Messina, who teaches the 12th grade AVID students, shared. \u201cSo that\u2019s why they\u2019re more prepared to be leaders in all of this. We\u2019re trying to do a lot of good deeds for the holiday season.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"McKeeRalph R. McKee CTE High School’s volunteer-run shop provides clothing to peers.Advance\/SILive | Nicolette Cavallaro<\/p>\n

The AVID program has maintained a presence at the school for several years, with strategies integrated into various subjects across the curriculum. <\/p>\n

Brigid Howley, the assistant principal who oversees humanities and foreign language, credited the program for allowing students to expand their knowledge set and explore their interests. <\/p>\n

\"McKeeRalph R. McKee CTE High School’s volunteer-run shop provides clothing to peers.Advance\/SILive | Nicolette Cavallaro<\/p>\n

\u201cAVID students are supposed to go above and beyond with service learning and community service. So as a class, they studied some of the things they wanted to do, and some kids created projects about what they wanted to do,\u201d she explained. \u201cThis is a whole next level. It\u2019s pretty amazing, and it\u2019s all student run.\u201d<\/p>\n

The program, along with building a relationship with the community, also focuses on preparing students for higher education. <\/p>\n

\"McKeeRalph R. McKee CTE High School’s volunteer-run shop provides clothing to peers.Advance\/SILive | Nicolette Cavallaro<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it\u2019s college and career readiness. They really just helped me sit down and give me personal feedback on any college applications I\u2019m doing. I\u2019ve taken a bunch of AP classes,\u201d shared Alvin, a senior at McKee. \u201cI have everything ready for college and I\u2019m going to SUNY Purchase. So my portfolio is all ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the future, Messina and Brady hope to have a second shop in the spring for more seasonal clothing, and continue to build her students\u2019 leadership abilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we do stuff like this, we really get to bond with everybody. It\u2019s community building. The kids are driving it, and the kids are benefiting the most. So that\u2019s really important,\u201d Messina shared. \u201cI think that\u2019s the most important part of AVID is that we have the room do something transformative. It\u2019s a confidence booster, and it\u2019s a leadership that they get to take on, and I think that helps them with their own spirit.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, NY — As the holiday season continues, some young Staten Islanders find themselves unable to purchase…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75418,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-75417","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}