The Bay Area has as many ways to volunteer as there are people at Aragon, be it through a club, a church, individually, or with one’s family.
During the holiday season, many people feel encouraged or even compelled to give back to their community. A survey conducted by the charity review website Guidestar documents that 46 percent of organizations get the majority of their donations at the end of the year. This increase is a major bonus for charities, which sometimes struggle to find volunteers during other seasons, though not because of a lack of opportunities.
During the holidays, people are often reminded of the need to give back to the community and to those less fortunate.
Sophomore Netta Wang, who is in the Red Cross Club, says, “Basically we collected gift wrap from students, and we also went to places like Walgreens to ask the managers if they want to donate any gift wrap. And then we go out and provide a gift wrapping service to raise money, and that money goes towards the Red Cross [Organization]”.
Sophomore Lindsay Block says, “For the holidays I usually go around to food banks and serve food… When we are serving the food they are always really grateful, and that feels good.”
Another volunteer, sophomore Elena Ralls also serves food to those less fortunate. Says Ralls, “One of my favorite philanthropies that I go to is Saint Vincent de Paul… Basically [volunteers] serve breakfast to homeless people… We made like 200 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. There are just piles of sandwiches everywhere…”
Teacher Jennifer Seif says, “My husband and I started a tradition when we got married that for every holiday season we would go to a local toy [store], to support a local business, and buy toys for kids of a variety of ages. We kind of stuck to infant toys and toddler toys and then elementary school and then did some research and found that Toys for Tots doesn’t get a lot of kids’ toys for middle school, so we made sure we did that.”
Seif continues, “We do a whole shopping cart. We do one with sports equipment. I’m especially big on women in sports, so I make sure that there are pink volleyballs, pink soccer balls, [and] pink hockey sticks so the girls get involved. They get toys, they don’t just get an Easy-Bake Oven.”
