Prior to the holiday break, the students of Monsignor Edward Pace High School’s Mission Club held a holiday party to prepare special stocking stuffers for children of families in need at Christmas. The annual event held at Pace was sponsored by Stephen Pelzer, a class of 2012 Pace alumnus and his family.
It was 15 years ago when Pelzer, at just 8 years old, was filling Christmas food baskets with his family and realized something was missing, candy for the children’s stockings. Following a trip to the store with his mother, Pelzer was able to add candy into each of the baskets that year and a tradition was born.
Since then, it is estimated that Pelzer has given 3,000 candy stocking stuffer bags to various groups in the South Florida community.
As a freshman at Pace in 2009, Pelzer decided to bring his annual tradition to his classmates in the Mission Club, and this holiday season marked the ninth year in which students have participated. The group filled 180 bags of candy which were later distributed by the Pelzer Family to the Broward House, a homeless shelter and transitional residence in Fort Lauderdale as well as a halfway house in the area.
In the words of Pelzer, “Santa Claus is what you do, not who you are,” and the students at Monsignor Edward Pace High School hope to help him bring in holiday cheer and sweet treats to children for many more years to come.