Peters Township students help brighten holidays
The holidays will be happier for 25 families in the Washington Area, thanks to the efforts of some 75 students and staff members at Peters Township High School.
In an annual project called Giving Tree, the school’s Interact Club worked with Blueprints, formerly Community Action Southwest, to collect, wrap and distribute more than 80 gifts.
“This was my second year as the project leader, so I organized the families that Blueprints sent and made each person an ornament tag with their name, age and Christmas wish list,” senior Natalie Glover said. “Then the students and staff of Interact Club and the school were generous enough to choose a tag and purchase the presents.”
Jessica Glover previously organized the Giving Tree, and after she graduated from high school, her sister took over.
“Last year, a few weeks after the presents were delivered, I received some thank-you notes from a few of the families,” Natalie said. “It was so heartwarming to see how the club truly impacted each of the individual families and how it made a difference in their lives.”
The Interact Club is part of a Rotary International effort to bring together students ages 12 to 18 to develop leadership skills while participating in service projects. The club at Peters Township High School receives support from the McMurray Rotary Club.
The nonprofit Blueprints serves 20,000 residents in Greene County, Washington County and West Virginia. The organization’s 50 programs have the goal of enabling families and individuals to attain the skills, knowledge, motivations and opportunities to become self-sufficient.
Also for the holidays, 14 students affiliated with Interact joined faculty adviser Pattie Trunzo in a Dec. 18 visit to Town View Nursing Home in Canonsburg for an hour and a half of singing Christmas carols in a multitude of rooms spanning three floors of residents.
“I cannot even begin to describe to you the joy on the faces of the people who live there,” Trunzo said. “Many cry, all thank us repeatedly, and everyone just eats the kids up with their eyes, as they breathe life and fresh air into their world.”
Response for the Giving Tree project was overwhelming.