WSHS Student Helps Spread Christmas Cheer with Senior Project

The holidays were a little brighter at the Avera Weskota Manor this year, thanks to Wessington Springs High School (WSHS) senior, Kennedy Kolousek. For her senior project, Kolousek organized an angel tree to help create a little holiday magic for the Manor residents.

“I have been working at the Manor since my freshman year of high school as a dietary aid. It’s not a job for everyone, but I have really enjoyed it,” explained Kolousek. “For my senior project I knew I wanted to do something for the residents and thought that creating an angel tree for them all to receive gifts from was a fun idea.”

With the help of her project mentor and the Manor activities coordinator, Lori Van Den Oever, Kolousek was able to gauge which unique gift each resident would enjoy. She was able to spread the word to the community about her project by hanging flyers, posting on Facebook and placing an ad in the True Dakotan newspaper. She had many community members and Manor employees fulfill the 33 gift requests and help bring a little joy to the Manor residents.

“I had a lot of fun watching the residents open their gifts and seeing how happy it made them. Some of them were really surprised and a lot of them told me ‘You didn’t have to do that.’ I could just tell from the looks on their faces that they really appreciated it,” said Kolousek.

After high school, Kolousek plans on pursuing a degree in early education at Southeast Technical College.

“I love working with senior citizens and younger children, so I knew that is what I wanted to do after high school,” she shared. “It was a really fun project and I know the residents enjoyed it too. My goal the whole time was to help residents have a good Christmas and I feel like I was able to do just that.”