Retired educators help bring Christmas cheer to Academy of the Americas

NOVI — Two former Novi educators came out of retirement to be Santa’s helpers and bring Christmas cheer to underprivileged youth in Detroit Dec. 14.

Former Novi Woods Elementary School Principal David Ascher, who retired last summer, and former eighth grade history teacher Kenny Fenchel, who retired in 2022, along with current sixth grade teacher Chip McDonald, were asked to be Santa’s helpers during the annual holiday party that the Novi Community School District throws for the students at the Detroit Public Schools Community Distict’s Academy of the Americas K-3 campus.

The party included a pizza lunch, games, crafts, a performance by the Novi High School choir, Santa visits to each classroom, and gifts for the children. The Novi Community School District collects donations of games and other toys to provide as presents for the kids.

Ascher, Fenchel and McDonald each took up the role of Santa Claus at the request of Novi Meadows Elementary School principal Lisa Fenchel, and they handed out the gifts to the children with a great big “Ho, Ho, Ho!” The children were very receptive to them, many running up and hugging them.

“There was a lot of hugs. I did not expect so many hugs,” Kenny Fenchel said.

“I think they just so appreciate new faces and having a day that isn’t their normal day. They loved everything. They loved the crafts. They loved the entertainment,” Lisa Fenchel said.

Lisa Fenchel said this was the first year she has been asked to find the Santa Clauses. She said she typically supplies the students and the teachers, but in the past, the Parent Teacher Organization has taken care of the other adult helpers. She said that when they asked, she knew McDonald had taken up the role of Santa Claus for a group of preschool kids and said he really did well. Then she was thinking of people the district would not need to hire a substitute teacher for, and she said she knew Ascher would be perfect as Santa Claus, and she also decided to nominate her husband for the position.

“This is about helping kids; selfishly, I get to see some of my former Novi Woods kids, but it’s also about helping people,” Ascher said.

He said he told his wife, who was assisting him as he went to the various classrooms, that they found a new holiday tradition and he would like to do it every year.

“I whispered to Mrs. Ascher that we may have a new holiday tradition. The season is for young children and to be able to experience that with them and the sheer joy of a simple gift,” said Ascher, whose daughters are grown up now. “Kids don’t realize that it goes two ways. We think we are here to help the kids, but the reality is they help remind us of joy. They help remind us what this season is about — what we can be all year long.”

Ascher said that he will definitely participate in activities such as this where he can be behind the scenes and help people.

“We’re going to have to get a cooler Santa suit, though,” he joked.

Kenny Fenchel said that he was constantly having to prove he was Santa to the kids. He said that they questioned his Nike shoes, which were visible under the faux boots. He told them that the reindeer had to rest, so he had to run to the school. They asked him where Mrs. Claus was, and he told them that she had to take care of the elves and feed the reindeer. They asked where his elves were, and he told them there were budget cuts so he wound up with the high school kids instead.

The kids also would ask him to prove he was Santa by knowing their names. He said he was able to correctly identify each and every one of them by name, and they really loved that. They never caught on that their names were written on their desks, he noted with a laugh.

Kenny Fennchel said the highlight of the event was just how excited the kids were to see him. He recalled how one girl got a Hello Kitty game and exclaimed, “You knew I liked cats!”

Parent and grandparent volunteers raved about how wonderful the program was.

“It’s wonderful. It’s so much fun to have the kids involved and helping the little ones. This is a great program,” said Marla Purcell, of Godfrey, Illinois. Purcell came to assist her daughter and granddaughter during the event.

“It’s great. I love the community coming together and doing this kind of stuff. It’s just so nice, and then to include all the kids from Novi schools, they get to come and enjoy the process too. It’s fun. It’s really fun,” said Lindsey Leovits, the event co-chair and mom of a fifth grade student.

Lisa Fenchel said it was helpful that the teachers selected some students who were bilingual in English and Spanish to assist with the event. She said the kids loved that some of her students were able to communicate with them in Spanish. At one point, a child handed her a book, and she went to read it and saw that it was in Spanish, so she called over one of her students and he read the book aloud.

“It was fun,” she said of the event.

Kenny Fenchel said he would definitely do it again. He joked that it would be fun to dress up as the Grinch and look in all the windows. Lisa Fenchel said there are many people who request to come back and help with the event year after year. She said one teacher told her to consider her a permanent volunteer for the event; she even had one of her media specialists come to assist with the event on her scheduled day off.

“We usually have more interest from volunteers than we can take, and it’s great,” she said. “It’s fun to get to work with a different age level. I’m not used to kindergartners. So it was kind of a fun day. It also reminded me why I work with fifth and sixth graders — because they are not kindergartners.”