Holiday Shoppe provides Westgate students with shopping opportunity

On Saturday, Dec. 7, Westgate Elementary School, held its 10th annual Holiday Shoppe in the gym at 500 S. Dwyer Ave. in Arlington Heights.

Despite the bitter cold and scheduled “Santa’s Run,” it was quite a success, with a fairly large crowd turning out. Within the first hour, almost half of the items had been bought. With over 100 items to look through, students were swiftly buying gifts such as jewelry, pens, toys, holiday decorations and various knickknacks.

The wrapping station was a frenzy with students carefully wrapping and tagging their precious presents. This year, the Westgate community will be finding a lot of special surprises under their Christmas trees!

Westgate’s PTA offers Holiday Shoppe for its students as an opportunity to buy inexpensive gifts for family, friends, teachers and even pets! It gives students a sense of independence as they can pick out the gifts, buy them, and even wrap them with or without their parent’s help.

It was a bittersweet experience for Holiday Shoppe Chairwomen Jennifer Campbell and Karen Leander as it was their final year after running the event for the past six years.

The concessions were run by Westgate’s Girl Scout Junior Troop #723, who even sold their own baked goods. The troop also helped young children wrap their presents while parents enjoyed beverages and goodies. The troop was also very excited to sell rainbow loom bracelets as a fundraiser for Fight Against Breast Cancer (F.A.B.)’s 5K. The money will be donated in honor of Noreen Armstrong, who lost her battle to cancer last year. Her son Ben is a third-grader at Westgate. Armstrong’s brother-in-law and nephew were in attendance to help support the cause.

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