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This 'Magic' Gesture Shows This Teacher's Students That Their Birthdays Are a 'Big Deal'
While some kids look forward to their birthdays all year, anticipating gifts and treats galore, Dawn Ticarich knows that's not always a reality for every child.
Growing up, an approaching birthday would fill the now-fourth grade teacher with 'dread' because she knew it meant that in order for her day to be special, her family would have to make sacrifices.
'I could hear conversations about our water being shut off and our electric being shut off,' she tells PEOPLE. 'And my birthday is at the very, very beginning of February, which is always the aftermath of Christmastime so, I knew that it was such a burden for my family for me to have a birthday party.'
When Ticarich grew up to become an elementary school teacher, she knew one of her top priorities would be for her students to know that 'birthdays are a big deal.' And Ticarich, whose students know her as Miss T., quickly learned just how important that gesture might be.
She recalls that on the first class birthday she celebrated at her "very low income school" in West Virginia, "my heart was shattered ... because I gave the little boy a present and he took it and stomped on it because he thought it was from his mother. He had no idea that a teacher would give him a birthday present like that.'
She realized that those same feelings she had to navigate as a child, her students were experiencing as well.
That led Ticarich to start creating birthday baskets filled with thoughtful and intentional gifts for each student in her classroom, a tradition she started last school year when she moved to Utah.
Ticarich, who now teaches fourth grade, says that while her population of students might have changed, their need for a special day has not.
Even for kids without financial difficulties, she says, "what parents can't replicate is the feeling of the social connection, of being so loved and made to feel so special by a class of 22 kids of your same age,' she says. 'That can't be replicated even in the richest home.'
Ticarich started documenting her process of gathering gifts on TikTok, explaining the meaning behind the ones she chooses. At first, she paid for them out of her own pocket, but she now has an Amazon wish list for those who wish to contribute.
Her method includes sending out a parent survey, taking suggestions from the recipient's classmates, and she says, "just kind of observing what would make them feel special…I feel like you're only a kid once and kids deserve that magic. It's such a big deal to me."
She hopes that, beyond the fun of opening a thoughtful gift, the students also get a meaningful message.
Gift giving is "the one love language that I am able to do,' she says, so she's showing love by "just modeling that, making people feel like they're a big deal and helping when we can.'
During Teacher Appreciation Week, she saw just how well that message had sunken in, when her students cleaned and organized the closet in their classroom as a surprise.
'That's them showing, 'I want to do something for you and it's important to me,' " she said, sharing how rewarding it has been "watching them blossom into these people with big hearts, because I've tried to instill in them ... you're going to cross paths with people who need extra support, and it's really important that you know how to do that.'
These acts of kindness have expanded outside of her classroom and into the halls of the school with the establishment of the 'blessing closet' that evolved from including a few necessities like chapstick and hand warmers to multiple closets filled with clothes, shoes and hygiene products, and, eventually, food.
To avoid any awkwardness or embarrassment that a student might feel in taking any of the items home for themselves or their family, Ticarich said they established a "no questions asked" policy for anyone shopping in the closet. "Even if your mom needs chapstick, you can take the chapstick, or if the cashier at the grocery store needs hand warmers, you take them, a no questions asked thing,' she says. 'You don't ask why somebody's taking a comb because you don't know if it's for their neighbor.'
The 'blessing closet' has since started including bags of food for families at the school who need it.
'We just didn't tell anyone no,' she says of the growing list of recipients. While all of these initiatives first came out of pocket, she has now received so many donations that they've been able to replicate the "blessings closet" at a local Title I school.
Despite all the positivity that surrounds her initiatives, Ticharich says that she does occasionally deal with negative comments online from people who don't understand why she goes to so much trouble for her students. At first, she deactivated her TikTok in response, but "pep talks" from people in her community encouraged her to keep sharing the joy online.
" 'If you are helping one kid, why do you care?' " she recalls the PTA president telling her, adding that she began to think about the larger impact of letting others get her down. "It was a lot of people saying, 'Well, what if there was an adult in your life who did this? And then they stopped and you went without?' "
By continuing to follow her heart, she's opened people's eyes and minds along thew ay.
'I realized that there are — especially when it comes to trauma and rebuilding and restorative practices — people won't understand if they've never lived that. So I was like, I'm going to start these baskets by sharing why I do it," she says. "There have been so many people that, in the comments have said, 'Well, you checked me because I used to think this is so stupid and over the top.' I wouldn't say changed their minds, but I have made them see a different perspective.'
Read the original article on People
