Edmond students go shopping for underprivileged kids

EDMOND — The moment Wenjia Xu walked into the store, he knew exactly what to search for.

Xu, a senior at Edmond Memorial High School, marched directly to the store’s toy section and grabbed a box of the classic game Connect Four.

"I used to play this when I was little,” he said. "It was my favorite.”

After school let out for winter break, Xu and other members of Edmond Memorial’s orchestra gathered at SuperTarget in Edmond to pick toys to donate to Toys for Tots.

Orchestra Director David Koehn said the idea to gather toys and games for underprivileged kids came on a whim. In past years, orchestra members would gather for a Christmas party during which everyone exchanged gifts worth up to $5.

This year, the students decided to pool their money together to buy toys to donate. In all, orchestra members gathered $200.

"It’s something that I think will show them the true meaning of Christmas,” Koehn said.

"The kids were really receptive.”

Orchestra members Carter Spencer and Chelsea Banks were part of the shopping party that searched for toys to donate.

"We all love to try to get out there, but we never had good ideas to get out there,” Banks said. "I think it’s really good to be able to reach out to the kids.”

Spencer, 16, said he would like the shopping trip to become a tradition.

"We’ve never done anything like this ever before,” he said. "It does bring us all together.”