Giving Tree Season has been another busy and rewarding one! For the past month, the Giving Tree committee along with the endless efforts of the assembly leaders of the student council have been working diligently to get prepared to give each child a special bag of warm clothing, school supplies, and a bespoke special gift for them.
We’ve had another amazing team of teachers who have graciously given up their time in an already busy time of year, leading up to Winter Holidays. Along with the help from teachers, we’ve had another dedicated group of children that have proven themselves to be leaders and taken on this charity by helping out every spare minute they had.
In the first few weeks of bags arriving to our school, all student council members picked them up from classrooms each day. With the help of Ms. Athena and Mr. David, we checked to make sure each one came to school. In the following weeks, these little leaders gave up their recesses to check that each bag had the appropriate items. With a checklist in hand, they soon saw these bags as not only a red tote of gifts, but something special that they would get to deliver and another child would receive joy from. Having had some council leaders gone last year on the service trip and knowing the process, it was great seeing them helping and leading by example.
So on Wednesday, November 29, 18 students and their parents, 6 teachers, and a little over 500 bags embarked on a trip to Suzhou to deliver these carefully chosen items for a migrant child. When we arrived, we were happily greeted with big smiles and many hands to help carry the bags in the school.
We experienced a wonderful ceremony, watching performances from the school’s children. Afterwards, we performed “We are the World,” and had their students join in on our hand sign language for the chorus. After the ceremony, each parent and child along with teachers went to anxiously deliver these gifts of love and care.
As a teacher, it is so wonderful to see the beaming smiles and joy from the children receiving the gifts, but also our young leaders appreciating every moment and learning from this experience first hand. In the end, rain or shine, parents, teachers, and students alike all left with full hearts and smiles.
Thank you to all the teachers that contributed this year with their time and to all the parents for supporting a bag and their gracious donations. We surpassed last year’s bags by over 200 with your generous support!It’s been truly a very Giving year!