No trading, just giving
Stearns plays Santa at school
Santa Claus paid an early visit Tuesday morning to Bruce Elementary School in Milwaukee, and he looked a lot like David Stearns.
The Milwaukee Brewers general manager and fiancée Whitney Ann Lee led a team contingent to the northwest side school to deliver bagfuls of presents to young, excited students from K4 through the fifth grade. Stearns made a personal donation to the Brewers Community Foundation to purchase the presents, which were nicely wrapped by team staff members.
“It’s a lot of fun to give back a little bit and see kids smile,” said Stearns, who wore a Brewers blue Santa hat while distributing presents. “It’s really cool to see and it’s very rewarding.”
With senior director of community relations Katina Shaw doing the legwork, the Brewers identified Bruce Elementary as the perfect school for the first such visit by Stearns. With only 210 students, it is the smallest in the Milwaukee Public Schools system and provided intimate class settings with students, who were allowed to submit wish lists for presents they might not receive otherwise.
Stearns and the team contingent made visits to 10 classrooms, where there were squeals of delight from children as they tore open presents with every kind of toy imaginable. One young girl who received a doll she cherished ran up and gave Stearns a big hug of thanks.
Before doling out gifts, Stearns delivered a message to each class, mostly centered on the thought that it’s often better to give than receive, and how important it is to care for others. He also asked and answered questions about favorite subjects and other school-related topics.
When informed by one student that math was a favorite subject, Stearns replied, “I do a lot of math in my job.”
“We wanted them to understand the importance and power of giving, and generosity and sharing in their community. I think it has the potential to be a powerful message,” Stearns said.
“Whitney and I are constantly discussing ways to give back to the community,” Stearns said. “This is the first year we’ve tried something like this. I think the response was really good. We look forward to doing things like this in the future.”