The holiday season is a time when people from all different walks of life in our community come together. They unite to share experiences and celebrate each other. It’s a time of reflection and being thankful. In Hauppauge, it’s not just limited to decorated houses or giving gifts, but more so about bringing the community together during a powerful time. In the center of this hive of community activity is Hauppauge High School. Whether you have a child who attends there or not, it is the meeting place of the community. The high school brings unity among the people of Hauppauge; other nearby towns are invited into activities hosted at the school. This can be seen with the food drives, craft fairs, sports, assemblies, and community events.
During each holiday season, Hauppauge comes together to support those in need. Hauppauge schools and the Hauppauge Public Library host food drives to offer those in need food for the holidays. Those in need are allowed to not have to worry about feeding their family, but instead be able to spend time with their families and celebrate. An example of this is when, during Safe Halloween, the high school collects canned food to put together boxes for families in need for Thanksgiving dinner. This alleviates some of the stress people experience during the holiday season. This specific food drive also recognizes a past Hauppauge teacher named Senora Aigen, who taught AP and IB Spanish at the high school for 20 years. In her free time, she would collect canned foods and give them to local food pantries to provide for families in need. Now the Senora Aigen food drive occurs annually to honor and continue a tradition she started in Hauppauge. In addition, giving back to the community through food drives doesn’t just benefit those in need but also those helping to organize and donate. When a person does a good deed, it makes them a better person and gives them a purpose. If one person donates just a few non-perishables to an organization, it could make a difference, especially during the holiday season when money can get tight. It just makes you feel good to help people. Overall, the holiday food drives here in Hauppauge bring ease to Hauppauge families during overwhelming and monumental times.
The Hauppauge High School annual holiday craft fair is a time when we shine by bringing the community together. People of all different ages and backgrounds share their talents and allow others to bring a piece of it home with them. Local businesses benefit from it because it offers them the chance to be seen by people in the community who didn’t know about them before. Now with companies like Amazon, local businesses are suffering because people automatically go to Amazon when they need something, because they feel it’s more efficient. Yet the HHS craft fair also allows people to get their holiday shopping done fast without having to go to a bunch of stores or search online. It gets the community to interact with each other and connect where they otherwise wouldn’t be likely to. Furthermore, HHS students get the chance to earn community service hours and see Hauppauge in a different way than they did previously. As someone who has shopped and sold, and volunteered at the holiday craft fair, I can say that it is mesmerizing to see how everyone in Hauppauge shows up and supports each other. In comparison, other districts have a craft fair before the holidays, too, but Hauppauge stands out because of the student participation and the diverse products supplied by over 100 vendors. The fact that there are 100 vendors present yearly at the craft fair represents how popular the event is to our community.
The Hauppauge High School is the center of Hauppauge community events, and how people get involved in the community. There are so many events the school hosts each month to get people involved instead of just sitting at home. During the holiday season, these events are more prominent in the community. A powerful tradition that brings the community together, representing the meaning of the holiday season here in Hauppauge, is Holidays and Heroes. This is a charity event that focuses on recognizing local heroes and celebrating the upcoming holidays. At this particular event, there are arts and crafts, pictures with Santa, and at the end, the Hauppauge Fire Department concludes the celebration with their parade of lights. More importantly, all the proceeds go to the Hauppauge High School’s own Share and Care program. The Holiday Concerts for the Hauppauge High and Middle Schools are held in the high school auditorium. Students in chorus, band, orchestra, and drama get to shine for the community, and the audience gets to bask in the glow of their talents. The Hauppauge community supports the arts and the growth of its students. While these are just two examples of the events held at the Hauppauge schools annually, it’s easy for people to see how big a part these events are in bringing the community together during the holiday season when people start to get overwhelmed and busy.
To conclude, the Hauppauge community is brought together during the holiday season through the food drives, craft fairs, and community events that take place annually. Bringing together those in Hauppauge and even those outside of the town. In addition, the acts of kindness that take place by donating to the food drives or volunteering at one of the events best reflect what the holidays mean to the Hauppauge community. It’s not about the gifts but about finding ways to interact with others and support each other. In other words, it shows the commonality of the community to want to help those in need when given the opportunity, celebrate together, and use the annual traditions as a way to expand their horizons and be involved. Hauppauge is a community of unity, and a good place to live.
