Students reconstruct Christmas in Lind cafeteria

A group of Lind students, and some parents, gathered together early Sunday morning in the high school cafeteria to begin the revitalization of the Christmas spirit.

The cafeteria had been previously decorated by Mickie Stanley, the head cook at the high school, and was tragically destroyed by vandals in the prior weekend.

Mackenzie Ellis had the idea to re-decorate for Stanley when she and her dad, Brian, were discussing the vandalism one night at the dinner table.

Everyone at the school, and in the community, have shared in the disappointment with the recent vandalism, so the Ellis’s decided that something had to be done.

Since Stanley is so great to everyone, they had to come up with a way do something great for her in return.

Mackenzie made a post on Facebook about the Sunday get-together in hopes of gathering a crowd of supporters, especially since some of the decorations that had been destroyed came from Stanley’s personal collection, including pieces that were over 20 years old.

“We weren’t trying to replace the broken items, since most are irreplaceable, but we wanted to bring back the Christmas spirit for Mickie and the school,” Mackenzie said.

Several decorations were donated to the cause in addition to the group also working tirelessly for hours – hand crafting and putting together their own decorations including a life size snowman, a cozy paper fireplace and an endless paper chain that strung throughout the room.

Everything was hung with care in hopes of surprising Stanley come Monday morning.

Stanley was overwhelmed by the hard work and extremely thankful for all that the group did. Thanks to the hard-working efforts by the students, the Christmas spirit will be able to continue on this year.