For several years Guadalupe Augustyn, a counselor at National City Middle School, collected baskets filled with food and sweets for the holiday season that she would pass out to families of the school who would benefit the most from the baskets. For the many families each year that received the baskets it was a great way to start the holiday break from school.

Guadalupe did this for years on her own, but with this past year being so difficult for many of the families, the staff of National City Middle decided to join Guadalupe and see if they could serve more of the families in the community.

“National City is a strong family community,” stated Angela Vasquez a math teacher and one of the organizers, “we consider ourselves a part of that community and we wanted to reach out to our community family to celebrate the holiday season.”

With that, the planning and preparing began. It started out like most family events do with everybody pitching in. A few friends pitched in to do the cooking, a few volunteered to do deserts, decorations, entertainment, and so forth. Each and every day more and more volunteers joined in.

With the volunteers working hard leading up to the big day it was the financial contributions of Augie Saucedo of the Sycuan Resort, Chairman Allen Lawson, Band of Kumeyaay Indians, Ernie and Diana Lucero of the California District 42 Little League, and many others who made the event even better than the organizers had imagined with enough money for food and presents.

On December 15th National City Middle School held its first ever Holiday Celebration. Students and their families were treated to dinner, entertainment, and prizes. In all about 300 people came to the school auditorium and enjoyed a wonderful evening of food and entertainment.

Performances were given by the school band, mariachi music from the school and Sweetwater High, the school dance team performed, as did Cruz Rodriguez and Annalysa Vasquez as they played their guitars for the guest.

“This holiday celebration was put on through the efforts of National City Middle School staff, the many donors and volunteers,” stated Vasquez. It is with much gratitude that we would like to thank those who participated in making this community outreach a success!”