LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – One teacher in the west valley is making sure his students learn a thing or two about giving back after thousands were given to them to make sure they don’t go hungry.
Gary Sessa is a Theatre Teacher at Bonanza High School. He’s getting his students ready for their upcoming spring musical, “Mean Girls.” But they quickly found out how nice the community can be.
Mr. Sessa says nearly all of his students are from low-income households, and once lunch is over, they often don’t have any food after putting in a lot of hours rehearsing after school.
Student, Aya Abdel-Salam isn’t surprised by his generosity. “He just cares a lot about us, especially with the food,” Abdel-Salam said.
Student, Trinity Austin says what Mr. Sessa does for them doesn’t go unnoticed.
“I don’t expect being given like that much care and support when it comes to like food and stuff throughout rehearsals. But knowing that he cares for our well-being of finding ways to provide us with food, water, just going up and beyond.”
Sessa is always trying to raise money for his students. “I’ve tried candy sales. I’ve tried wrapping paper sales, cookie dough,” Sessa said.
The new fundraiser on Donors Choose will directly impact historically underfunded classrooms providing his students with food and drinks.
The goal is to have them focus on rehearsal and building the set, instead of wondering where the next meal will be coming from.
“We want to make sure that they are fed so they don’t have to worry about those things. Kids shouldn’t have to worry about that,” Sessa said.
Rose Gallegos explains how much it means to have that worry taken away.
“That’s actually quite important because there are some days where I will not eat lunch and this will be the only thing I will usually eat within a day,” Gallegos said.
Mr. Sessa has done this before, raising more than $2,300 so his students don’t go hungry.
He says the school does everything it can with the Title 1 money it gets to provide the students with what they need, but they’re fighting with a lack of resources. However, he doesn’t let that get in his way.
“I want them to know, I did it for them because somebody did it for me and they can do it for somebody else and that’s why it’s important to me because you got to take care of people,” Sessa said.
The current fundraiser is currently fully funded, but Sessa says he will start another one. If you’d like to donate to the Bonanza High School Theatre Program in the meantime, Sessa says you can contact the school at 702-799-4000 and say you’d like to donate to the theatre program, and they will do something positive with it.
Performances of the show will be April 2nd, 3rd and 4th.
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