UNITY Youth Highlight
Maci Schott helped the Osni Ponka Youth Council plan a holiday season that would remember both teens and elders. Working with council Secretary Cami Schott in Omaha, Nebraska, she coordinated the Toys for Teens and Senior Secret Santa projects during October and November 2022.
As a member of UNITY’s 25 Under 25 cohort, Schott was recognized for youth leadership and community contribution. The program celebrates young Native people who put service and personal development into action. Her holiday planning demonstrates that purpose through a project shaped around specific needs within her tribe’s service delivery areas.
Toys for Teens focused on purchasing gifts for an age group Schott said could be left out of Toys for Tots. Identifying that gap helped the youth council give its effort a clear purpose: making sure teenagers were included in holiday giving and helping ease seasonal stress for families.
Senior Secret Santa carried the same intention toward elders. The council planned gifts as a way to honor older community members and show that they remained part of the community’s holiday celebrations.
“These projects allow our youth council to give back to the future leaders of our tribe and honor our elders,” Schott wrote. Her description links the two projects across generations rather than treating them as separate shopping activities.
Schott and Cami’s responsibilities included planning and coordinating the events, with another shopping day scheduled for November 19 to organize and pack gifts. The photographs she submitted showed the council’s shopping effort from the previous year as it prepared to continue the work.
Those details demonstrate the organization behind a service project. Recognizing who might be overlooked is one step; translating that concern into shopping, preparation, and shared responsibilities is another. The collaboration gave youth council members a practical way to carry an idea through planning toward delivery.
The projects connect with UNITY’s social wellness and leadership priorities by strengthening relationships among young people, families, and elders. They also show youth councils contributing through locally chosen projects that respond to their own communities.
“This ensures no one is forgotten during the holiday season,” Schott shared. That simple purpose gives the planning its larger meaning: teens and elders receiving a message that they matter, delivered through the work of young leaders learning to serve together.
