Custom Cards to Spread Holiday Cheer

Nicole Porter is a bouncy 14-year-old freshman at St. Joseph’s Academy. She lives in Weldon Springs and heard through the grapevine that sometimes senior citizens are left out of the fun at Christmas and are often overcome with loneliness.

She and her youth group at St. Joseph’s Congregation in Cottleville decided to do something about it.

“I love crafts. I like to make fun things,” Porter at school. The task was easy.

The first week of December, she and her friends crashed in her basement and created 100 colorful holiday cards to give to those who live in the nursing home and independent residences at the Mount Carmel Senior Living Center on First Capitol Drive in St. Charles.

These were not just cards colored with markers, she said.

“We personalized all 100 cards with craft materials like buttons, bows, cotton balls, pipe cleaners, and lots of glitter and colorful paint,” Porter said.

Porter’s pals created 50 of the cards. She stayed up way past midnight one night working on the other 50.

“We sang Christmas carols to the folks in the nursing home. We pushed the ones in wheelchairs to get there,” she said.

“One of the residents in independent living was in the Navy. He was telling us some of his war stories,” she said. “It was fun listening to him.”

Porter is one of 177 students in the freshman class at St. Joe's, the largest in recent memory. She and 15 other students from the Weldon Springs area commute 30 minutes to school each day. They hit the road at 6:45 a.m. and arrive at school by 7:15 a.m., way ahead of the first bell.

Porter is getting into the swing of things at her new high school. Until last year, she attended public school in St. Charles County. She ran cross-country this fall, will try out for the volleyball team and is a member of the youth theater at St. Charles Community College.

She and her 21-year-old brother Mitchell, who is finishing up coursework in order to attend Missouri Institute of Technology in Rolla, live with parents Barbara and Bruce and two dogs live on three acres of land south of Francis Howell High School in Weldon Springs. She enjoys roaming the outdoors with the property featuring both a pasture and a pond.

Porter is serious about her school work. She wants to become a pharmacist and study at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville.

“I heard they were good at that,” she said.

St. Joe's encourages its many students to get involved with outside community life. Freshman Porter is a quick study. Her efforts on behalf of the Mount Carmel Senior Center certainly made the holiday much brighter for those senior residents.