The spirit of giving

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January 17, 2008

CHS helps Lil' Angels

By Jessica Jobe The Commerce Journal Thu Jan 17, 2008, 03:10 PM CST

This year Commerce High School has chosen to take part in the season of giving by participating in Angel Tree. (A charity project that helps young children experience the true meaning of Christmas, by receiving extra gifts that they may not have gotten, making the holiday season more special.) In Mrs. Rose’s room a tree was set up with angels on it, each 3rd period class was asked to pick an angel and purchase gifts for it.

Mrs. Rose, the sponsor of FCCLA (who was in charge of putting this organization together) said that it’s a very good organization. “This particular tree goes to help children who are in foster homes, or under some sort of foster care. They don’t have a regular Christmas with their real families, so I think that every little bit that we can do helps a lot to make sure that Christmas is great for these kids.”

How did the students feel about doing this though? “Our class bought presents for a little girl,” responds Sage Sullivan, “I really liked going to Wal-Mart and picking out the presents. I don’t know. I just felt like I was doing my part to help.”

“I really liked doing it,” says Junior Ryan Brenn “it gave me a warm feeling in my heart.”

“It made me feel good knowing that on Christmas morning, a child will be waking up with presents under the tree that wouldn’t usually get that experience.” adds Allie Stauffer, also a junior “I can’t imagine going without that kind of Christmas.”

To show the true giving nature of our school, Mrs. Overstreet’s classes started doing Angel Tree a couple weeks before the teacher’s knew about CHS’ plan to contribute to Angel Tree. “I had no idea FCCLA had decided to take this on. I just told all of my classes that we were going to take part in Angel Tree, and I was accepting donations to help buy the presents. In all they raised a lot of money and I had enough money to buy quite a few gifts for two children. I wasn’t really surprised that they donated so much though, because I think that teenagers are very giving at their age. I had faith in my students to make this happen.”

In all we have helped over 22 angels (including Mrs. Overstreets’) and bought numerous gifts. Now that’s a true season of giving.

So will CHS choose to do this next year? Mr. Curry, the principal, had a lot to say about this, “I’m glad that we decided to do Angel Tree this year, and I definitely want to do it next year, if the students are willing. I think it’s a really good program for young people to be involved in. It shows the true meaning of Christmas, and makes the feeling of giving extra special. I take my son to do this every year, and after we’re done he feels wonderful about doing it, and he’s four. It’s an opportunity to look after these young children, and in a way everyone who gets to participate in this is getting the chance to be an angel.”

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