History

Campbell Hall's Outreach Gift Fair (formerly the Alternative Gift Fair) was started at the Holiday Season in 1990 to help our students understand that celebration of our gifts involves sharing with others. Modeled after Alternative Gifts International, our Fair is scheduled around Thanksgiving each year and provides the Campbell Hall community with a "shopping list" of projects, such as preservation of the rain forest, support for Interfaith Food Pantry, or library supplies for Hillsides Homes for Children in Pasadena which offer opportunities to give meaningful gifts in honor of friends, family, colleagues, or teachers!

Tables on the sidewalk before and after elementary classroom chapels close to Thanksgiving offer informational inserts to be put in your holiday greeting cards and sent as gifts: "A gift to support this project was made in your honor through the Campbell Hall Outreach Fair."

Prior to this community event, the students in grades K-5 are involved in an extended service learning activity (6th grade does a special activity). Each class selects a project from the shopping list appropriate to the curriculum and to the students' interests. In some grades students may vote on their project for the year. Classroom activities may involve science, math, art, reading and social studies, as well as service learning. A culminating chapel is presented by each grade in grades 1-5.

The service learning component of this activity involves not only exploring a variety of outreach opportunities, but also the fact that the students' earn their money for the class gift. Each student is asked to decide on some kind of special service to earn $3.00 in the primary grades and $5.00 in the elementary grades. Car washes, recycling, massages, and taking care of the family pets are perennial favorites.