MONROE — As the holiday season gets in full swing, people across Green County are getting involved and giving back. This includes Monroe High School (MHS) students, who have volunteered their time to spread holiday cheer by creating cards for the Monroe Woman’s Club’s Christmas Stocking project.

Four MHS student organizations are currently working together to design and write holiday cards for the project — Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA), the National Honor Society (NHS), the Junior Optimists and the Key Club.

In addition to teaching Business and Information Technology MHS, Emily Bartels also serves as the advisor for FBLA, an organization that helps prepare students for future careers in business. 

Bartels stepped in to fill the shoes of longtime MHS teacher and FBLA Advisor, Sherri Hendrickson.

“December was a busy month for FBLA,” Hendrickson remembers. “We have written Santa letters for many years, we have had coat drives and food drives … The students who got involved with the stocking project loved it.”

Bartels said Hendrickson made the original connection with the Monroe Woman’s Club, helping MHS students get involved. 

“We would usually get a couple families and the students would help us do the shopping for the families … that was all pre-COVID,” Bartels said. As the process was adapted post-COVID, so did the way that the students participated. 

MHS students make handmade holiday cards to accompany the cheer boxes and food boxes that the Monroe Woman’s Club delivers to community members. The students have been creating cards for the project for four years.

“We have people who have gotten their cheer boxes several years in a row and since we have started doing the holiday cards, they’ve kept their holiday card each year,” Bartels said. “That’s really cute, you know? It’s just a simple 5-by-7, two-sided card that the kids will draw an image on one side and write just a little element to add into those boxes, to hopefully bring some joy.”

Bartels said the students make around 500 to 700 handmade cards for the project each year. Bartels estimates that 120 students participate in the effort. This year, they started making the cards in early November.

“They do enjoy doing it,” Bartels said about making the handmade cards. “And it’s a nice change in their day to be able to do something like that and to be able to give back.”

When Bartels found out there were recipients who kept the cards they received each year, she shared that with her students — and she said it was clear they felt pride in learning their handmade cards were valued by others. 

“You could just see the looks on their faces, they were just stunned that they would make that sort of impact,” Bartels said.