By Turner Smith
Editor-in-Chief
Photo courtesy of Isabel Lohman

Students will be given the opportunity across the school to support students in need by picking up tags in their second period class this holiday season.  When students pick up a tag, they essentially decide to sponsor a student in our district. The tag contains a simple request: what a child wants for Christmas this year, but won’t be able to get without outside support. These gifts aren’t big monetarily, but they’re huge to the children that will be opening them during the holidays.

This Alliance for the Children toy drive is being directed by the Key Club, and is being run by its members and faculty sponsors. They’re taking on this service project, as they do every year, to brighten a season for children that sometimes feel alone at this time of year. And they’re giving us the chance to work with them.

“Buying a small gift for a child is a simple and easy way to help someone in our community smile on Christmas day,” Senior and Key Club vice president Carly Hagel said.  

The gifts are inexpensive, but incredibly valuable to the children that receive them. The drive is a great opportunity for students to give back during the holidays, and to make someone else smile.

For those that decide to pick up a tag from your second period class, the unwrapped gifts can be dropped off at the freshman house on Nov. 30, Dec. 4, and Dec. 7. The club hopes to model the incredibly successful drive last year.

“We handed out 450 tags… we were able to fill up a truck of toys and gifts last year and we hope to collect even more donations this year,” Hagel said.

The sponsors for this year’s Alliance for the Children toy drive are Sue Povilonis, Patricia Hoffert, and Patrick Fox. Students can seek out the above sponsors, or Key Club members if they have any other questions about how they can get involved.