This year after the St. Louis Christmas Parade Thursday, December 2 the parade proceeded into the Saint Louis High School cafeteria, where the Shark Tooth woodshop was waiting with toys for the children.

St. Louis has had its Christmas parade for a very long time, but one thing has been similar for a while; Mr. Maxwell and his woodshop make toys for children every year. According to Maxwell, “We got involved in the Christmas Parade 4 years ago.  We started off by making around 200 toys and giving them out at the parade.” An impressive feat to be sure, each holiday season, the Sharks’ Woodshop works their tailfin off to provide for the general community. This year, the SLHS Cafeteria had the North Pole’s very own Santa Claus waiting to greet children just after the parade.

Woodshop student Michael Hart stated, “It was really fun to see everyone having a good time and coming together there to get toys. There were students, teachers and other people from the town coming together, including Santa.” Truly a magical evening for everyone involved, especially the children who went home with brand new things to play with. Things are tough these days for everyone, the slightest bit of help could really change someone’s outlook. And that’s really what the woodshop is about, extending a gesture to make our little community feel just that little bit closer.

Maxwell closed, “I love seeing the community come together.  It is one of the best events in St. Louis that we see such a great turnout of people.  I struggle this year with not having all of my students hand the toys out to kids.  This year it was a come to us event, but next year I want to go back to the idea of us going to the kids. We are hoping to make a few more toys and go to another school district and give away some more toys.  We are also building cabinets for our Shark Closet and for our middle school office.”