CEMENT, Okla. – It may not be the biggest community. Some may not even know where it is, but it is where some of the biggest hearts are growing up and passing along even bigger life lessons.
Students at Cement High School are out for Christmas break but not these two. Nycoal Talbert and Brayden Carpenter are hard at work wrapping gifts for less fortunate children in town.
Braydyn is more in charge of the tape, but what they don’t know is that one of the teacher’s is in charge of something, too. She nominated them for Pay It Forward.
“Right now the kids are in the ag shop,” Samantha Mclendon said. “They’re working on wrapping presents for needy families in the community.”
And while they’re in the back, folks from the community are gathering inside the school auditorium.
“They have really made an effort to befriend all of the kids, and they found out one of the little boys in particular was having a birthday, and he wasn’t going to get a cake or presents or anything and took it upon themselves to throw him a birthday party in the classroom,” Mclendon said. “They had cake and ice cream and they bought him a present, and they did all of that just because they wanted to.”
Mclendon did the nominating, and First Fidelity Bank did the donating.
“It’s really heartwarming when the young adults in our community really help each other and that they helped a kindergarten student feel special is what this is all about,” Sean Crandall of First Fidelity Bank said. “On behalf of First Fidelity Bank and all of our colleagues we’re so proud to help support the pay it forward program. Here’s four hundred dollars to help do that.”
“He’s our little buddy, and he came crying one day telling us that he wasn’t going to get to have a birthday, and we felt really bad so we just went and bought him a couple of presents and made him a cake,” Talbert said.
“He was really excited,” Carpenter said. “He was almost jumping up and down.”
Character that is not just at work during the holidays but year round.
“They went above and beyond, and they didn’t have to,” Mclendon said. “They’re teenage kids. Most teenage kids don’t think about anybody other than themselves.”
Pay It 4Ward is sponsored by First Fidelity Bank.
