Highland Elementary School and Washington School once again offered their “Giving Tree” this holiday season. The Giving Tree is a tree set up inside both schools where families in need can put down items they need this holiday season, along with their children’s wish lists. From there, other families, community members, and school staff can grab one of the tags from the tree, and shop for those items, making sure the families get the things they need during Christmas.
Tara Rodriguez of Highland Elementary School said the Giving Tree has been around for as long as she has been at Highland. “The Giving Tree has been going on at Highland for as long as I can remember,” said Rodriguez. “It has just continued to grow over time. The first year we were able to bring about 30 gifts to families around the community, and it’s evolved into lots of different people contributing, and we have well over 100 gifts that we delivered this year.”
With the gifts, there are also gift cards, food baskets, and other items to help fill the need for people this holiday season. The community’s needs have grown over the years, but Rodriguez said so has the community’s generosity, and she has never had to tell a family they won’t be able to receive a gift.
Rodriguez talked about her favorite part of the Giving Tree and what makes the event unique. “You can see the joy on people’s faces,” said Rodriguez. “While it is nice to deliver gifts to families and feel that joy, I think it’s also a way to show those families that we support them and that we see them and are here to help. It’s a great message around this time of the year.”
Rodriguez noted the process begins well in advance of Christmas time. “In early November, I start to identify families to invite to be on the giving tree, and then we also get some people who ask if they can participate in it as well,” said Rodriguez. “Again, thanks to the generosity in the community, I’ve never had to tell a family that we can’t help. That is pretty incredible when you think about it.”
Rodriguez personally makes tags and children’s wish lists and places them on the trees at Highland and Washington, where people can then come, grab one, and go out to shop for the items. The gifts were all delivered earlier this week by school members and donations received from the community. A picture of a few people that helped deliver the gifts earlier this week can be found down below –
