Newsmakers 2016: Jennifer Icaza-Gast

Jennifer Icaza-Gast's go-to motto is, "If you're not giving, you're not living."

More than a decade ago, Icaza-Gast began to cry as she watched her children eagerly open their presents on Christmas morning.

"I started crying at the thought of other little kids going into their living room at that very moment and finding nothing under the tree," she says.

At the time, she taught at Southeast Missouri State University, and the following semester she launched the Student Santas program, which at the time was an opportunity for her students to gain bonus points if they brought toy donations for local children in need.

With an overwhelming response from her students, Icaza-Gast decided to broaden her efforts to the community, and the event has continued to grow ever since.

Jennifer GastGlenn Landberg

Jennifer GastGlenn Landberg

Eleven years later, the not-for-profit Student Santas organization has helped nearly 20,000 children in Missouri receive toys and other necessary items like coats, shoes and household items for Christmas. Icaza-Gast ensures every Student Santas request letter is read and every item donated is personally delivered.

Several years ago, Icaza-Gast received a letter from a little boy, not asking for toys, but instead for a hot meal for Christmas. This request spurred her to organize an annual Christmas meal for community members, which has subsequently grown each year, with the most recent dinner feeding 300.

"My plan is to do it every year and I want to get it so big that we have to do it at the Show Me Center; that's what I want to do," she says.

In the future, Icaza-Gast wants to branch out the Student Santas organization to other states to help families in need throughout the country.

"I want other communities to be able to do what Cape County is doing. I want them to experience what we're doing because it's contagious," she says. "Â… It's just a contagious thing and I say we all can catch it, and it's just better for the community and you're a better person, I think, for it."

Icaza-Gast also is a member of the Cape Girardeau Evening Optimist Club, co-chair for the inaugural Cape Cancer Gala for Southeast Hospital, on the women's council for the Safe House for Women, president of the Cape County Area Medical Alliance and she works with the local Backpacks for Fridays program.

"It's truly a blessing to give to other people, and it's a great lesson for your kids," she says.