As the holiday season approaches, Stan State has partnered with local elementary schools to give children in the community gifts for the holidays. Located in the Student Center, ASI has put up The Warriors Giving Back Tree.
The deadline to register and to send in an unwrapped gift is Dec. 5. There is also an Amazon Wishlist for people who can not grab a tag from the tree.
Campbell Edstrom, the Student Center Engagement Assistant, states that The Warriors Giving Back initiative began in 2014. They were able to provide, as of last year, over a thousand gifts to five schools and 150 kids. She is hopeful that this year they will be able to provide more.
She explains the process in which students, or anyone in the community that wants to participate, picks a tag off of the tree and then registers it at the student center service desk. After that, they go shopping for their gift(s) and return it to the service desk unwrapped.
ASI proceeds to then wrap the gifts themselves, and go to the schools with Titus, the Stan State mascot.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for the Warrior community to give back and support the youth that will eventually come to Stan State,” Edstrom said.
She mentions that they do hear back from the kids about how excited they are to get gifts during the holiday season.
Juliette Orozco (Senior, Psychology), an employee at the Student Center Service desk, mentions that a lot of students have already participated in the giving tree activity.
She recommends students taking more tags, as there are a lot of elementary school students who would enjoy receiving a gift during this time of year.
“I think it’s really nice seeing the whole community come together, just to donate and even some people are willing to give multiple donations. It doesn’t matter how much it is or what it is. It’s just nice knowing others care about others,” Orozco said.
Emaan Nawabi (Freshman, Communications) shares that she spotted the giving tree in the Student Center and was intrigued by it, which made her want to grab a tag and register to participate.
Nawabi shares her opinion about what the giving tree represents and expresses the emotion she felt that inclined her to register a tag in the first place.
“It’s a really beautiful thing to be able to give to those who are less fortunate, especially during Christmas time because I personally don’t celebrate Christmas. I’ve never celebrated Christmas as a kid, but to think that people who do celebrate Christmas aren’t able to have presents or really do much. It makes me really sad,” she said.
As Nawabi is participating in this activity this year, she also talks about her experience being able to provide gifts for a child.
She mentions that she chose the tag because the kid had similar interests to her, such as playing with slime and Roblox. She intends to purchase gifts related to these topics, along with possibly a sweater for the winter.
Nawabi adds that she wants to be able to help those people, to make sure they can be given a beautiful Christmas.
Odelia Melkopour (Freshman, Criminal Justice & Psychology) says that she heard about the giving tree from a friend, who explained the entire process to her.
Though she has not previously participated in The Warriors Giving Back Tree activity, she still wants to eventually partake in it.
Melkopour explained that she believes this activity is good for the children, since some families may be struggling financially. She continued to express that this event allows people the opportunity to go out of their way to make those kids happy and help out the community.
Jordan Thompson (Senior, Criminal Justice) says that she was not aware of the giving tree. However, she likes that Stan State gives students an opportunity to be able to donate, as some students may not know how to go about doing so.
“It’s kind of something that has to be set up for you to do. So it’s cool that there’s that opportunity for the students that go to Stan,” Thompson says.
If interested, follow the process listed above. For more information, go to the Student Service desk located in the Student Center.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misstated the number of children who received gifts from the Warrior Giving Back initiative last year. ASI provided gifts to 150 children, not 300.
