By Afra Hussain
<[email protected]>

This year, starting this Tuesday and continuing until to Dec. 16, the Senate will sponsor the annual gift drive known as Care-to-Share. Student participation is not mandatory, but the Senate highly encourages it.

While there is no monetary goal for Care-to-Share, according to senator and senior Sophia Paliza-Carre, the Senate’s biggest challenge is to get more SRTs to participate in the program. 

“A lot of SRTs really want to participate and were really glad for that,” she said. Paliza-Carre and Jade Luo, fellow senator and senior, are in charge of the committee for Care-to-Share.

After the drive, the Senate normally delivers gifts to the recipients’ homes. But this year, the process has changed. Students will now deliver the gifts to a central location or to caseworkers assigned to the families.

According to Senate sponsor Michelle Foutz, this change is a result of safety concerns. Though Foutz said seeing the families’ faces was the most meaningful part, the purpose of the drive is not lost.

Preparations for Care-to-Share begin early. The process starts with e-mailing SRT teachers and asking whether they are interested in participating in the drive. Paliza-Carre and Luo, with the help of Foutz, figure the total number of individuals the school can support. Then United Christmas assigns individuals to the school and SRTs are actively engaged from then on.

Interested SRTs are assigned an individual to buy gifts for, but they also have the choice of working with another class. Participating classes can either buy the gifts themselves or raise money to cover the cost of gifts and then senators can buy the gifts instead. The Senate then gives descriptions of the individuals and a list of suggested gifts to the SRTs. Items on the list usually consist of clothing, coats, mittens, hats, kitchenware and toys. SRTs  can collect the gifts in their classrooms.

The school has long a history of participating in Care-to-Share. According to Foutz, the program has existed for more than 20 years at this school. The Senate works with United Christmas Service, an affiliate of United Way . The families are selected based upon financial need and United Christmas assigns families to the school based on how many people the SRTs are willing to support. Foutz said usually about 60 individuals benefit from the school participating in Care-to-Share.

Paliza-Carre said she enjoys participating in Care-to-Share because it is a more personal charity event than the usual fund-raising events. She said she enjoys taking part in organizing the drive and delivering the gifts.

Referring to the gift drive, she said, “The fact that we’re still able to help them is most important.”

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UNITED CHRISTMAS SERVICE

• Started in 1952 as a separate program of United Way
• Supports over 33,000 individuals each holiday season
• Needs at least $725,000 to support Central Indiana families
• Last year raised $804,216

UWCI.ORG / SOURCE