Teachers and students are helping to spread holiday joy with the Small World Angel Tree Program which allows Redhawks to ‘adopt an angel’ through 2B class periods and collect gifts for their angel throughout November.

The decision to participate is based on the class’s willingness to do so, something that Humanities teachers Elizabeth Evans and Sarah Wiseman wanted students to participate in.

“We left it up to our class to vote because we always want to make sure that students are participating,” Wiseman said. “Both Mrs. Evans and I realized that it’s important to support families in our community that are struggling.”

For AP Biology teacher Chris Ham, the holidays should be something that should be a time of joy, which is why he decided to adopt an angel.

“It’s to really just serve and give back to our community,” Ham said. “[The] holidays are something that we should all find joy in. It’s like a day or a month of celebration, and when someone isn’t able to celebrate because of financial needs, it can really be a demoralizing part [of the holidays]. We want everyone to have the spirit and the joy of the holidays, so adopting an angel allows us to sort of, you know, give back and let that happen.”

Adopting an angel was something junior Sheen Saxena wanted to do to give back to those who are less fortunate.

“I wanted to adopt an angel in order to give back to my community because I feel like it’s really important, especially around the holiday time,” Saxena said. “I think it’s super important to give back because there are people that are a lot less fortunate than we are, and we’re in a really good place to be able to give back to that community.”

Wiseman also emphasizes the importance of unity, finding that unity makes us all better people. 

“I just think it’s important to give back because it shows kindness, caring, and compassion to our community, and we’re all better together than we are looking out for our own interests.”