Something Good: El Reno High School's 75 Year Holiday Tradition Continues

Thursday was El Reno’s annual Gifts to the Yanks event.  Every year El Reno High School students raise money to hand out gifts to veterans at the Oklahoma City VA Hospital during the holiday season. News 9's Brian Mueller has the story.

Thursday, December 10th 2020, 6:47 pm



Thursday was El Reno’s annual Gifts to the Yanks event. 

Every year El Reno High School students raise money to hand out gifts to veterans at the Oklahoma City VA Hospital during the holiday season. 

They raised nearly $11,000 and got everything on the VA’s wish list. 

“A lot of us are having a hard time finding reasons to smile, so I just hope we can give them a reason to smile this year," said El Reno High School junior Molly Carson. 

Gifts to the Yanks started 75 years ago in the World War II era. While this year’s event looked a little different than in year’s past, the school said it was important in this year, of all years, to keep that tradition going. 

“We were determined to find a way to make sure this continued throughout the pandemic and everything else going on so we could get out here and thank these veterans," said El Reno High School principal Tim Pounds.

While the students couldn’t go inside the VA hospital like they normally do to deliver gifts, their acts of kindness are still coming through loud and clear. 

“There’s so many veterans that are alone, that can’t see there outside relatives because of COVID. This is just amazing for them to have some sort of act of kindness given to them during this extremely tragic year," said Wade Vlosich, Health Care System Director at the OKC VA.  

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