Advisors Excel donates greater than 100 procuring sprees to USD 501 college students

About 1 p.m. Wednesday, Topeka USD 501 superintendent Tiffany Anderson mysteriously disappeared for about two hours from the district.

Fortunately, in her place got here Mrs. Claus, as she made her rounds across the USD 501 preschoolers and kindergarteners having fun with the procuring journey of their brief lifetimes at Kohl’s.

For the previous a number of years, staffers from Advisors Excel have taken college students in want from the district on vacation procuring journeys to the division retailer.

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Whereas the journeys are paid for on the monetary adviser advertising firm’s dime, staffers from the corporate like to volunteer for the annual vacation procuring journeys, and so they compete for the restricted slots, mentioned Tracy Khounsavanh Killough, director of group engagement for Advisors Excel.

“They simply love having the ability to spend time with the children,” Khounsavanh Killough mentioned. “It is actually all about pleasure. … Our hope is that it spreading kindness, love and supporting our group, we will make a giant distinction for these youngsters, and that it is a second that sticks with them without end.”

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About 120 college students, from preschool to highschool, will obtain procuring journeys this 12 months. Khounsavanh Killough mentioned that in her expertise, youthful youngsters naturally decide extra objects from the toy part, whereas older college students could decide extra needed objects like garments and even outfits for job and faculty interviews.

Wednesday, although, was youthful kids from a couple of of the district’s elementary faculties, and Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus every prowled across the toys part, handing out hugs, smiles and candy sweet canes to beaming college students.

It is all the scholars are in a position to speak about for weeks after they return to their faculties and inform their associates about their superior experiences, mentioned Eva Yerkes, a counselor at Ross Elementary.

“That is simply such a giant blessing to our college,” Yerkes mentioned. “Any assist like that is, and our college’s households and oldsters are simply so grateful that others in the neighborhood are prepared to do that.”

Devin Seats, assist desk assist specialist at Advisors Excel, helped Javon Timley, a first-grader at Ross Elementary, hunt via the again nook of Kohl’s for toys not just for himself, but in addition for his siblings.

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Seats mentioned the chance to assist Javon store was notably impactful for him, since he has a 6-year-old of his personal.

“You get to have such a direct influence on the children, and so they get to expertise one thing wonderful,” Seats mentioned. “It is simply nice to see the grins on their faces.”