District 99 Donates Presents for 250 Kids, 25 Seniors

and students filled a bus and a van with hundreds of presents Thursday to be taken to children and seniors in need. 

Individuals, groups of friends, classes and even the North High bands "adopted" kids or senior citizens, donated money, bought presents and wrapped them for the collection drive.

Those who adopt a child or senior citizen are asked to buy four presents, though there is no required dollar amount to be spent. 

North packed up presents for 150 kids and 25 senior citizens. South loaded presents for 100 kids. 

Direct Action at North organizes the drive; Key Club at South does the same. Both are community service clubs.

So many North High classes "adopted" children and seniors that Junior Jim Burke was in four of them; Sophomore Angelina Crescimone had three. They say the overlap doesn't hurt the drive since students will donate to whichever class needs it more. 

Crescimone said the combined geometry classes at North raised $400 for Giving Tree. 

The three North High bands compete each year to see who can raise the most money, Burke said. The winner gets a pizza party. Wind Ensemble always wins, he said, "because near the end, everyone just starts pulling out $20's." 

The North bands and orchestra raised $1,800 for the school's Giving Tree, according to the North High band blog.

"Our goal is to raise $200 per kid," Burke said. "I think of what their faces will look like when they see how many really cool gifts they receive." 

North High Senior Brendan McBride said it's a good feeling to participate in Giving Tree. 

"It's nice to see kids who are not getting anything for Christmas to get this many presents," McBride said. 

South High Sophomore Melissa Gormon said she likes helping kids in need who are close to home. 

"Living in Downers Grove, we don't really see a lot of the bad things in the world, " she said. "I like to see people participating because these are local kids we're buying presents for." 

Both schools coordinated their Giving Tree drives with Humanitarian Service Project in Carol Stream, which serves DuPage County. 

Members of the South High Key Club will also volunteer time handing out presents at Humanitarian Service Project on Dec. 17.