The Giving Tree

"The Laurels Chapter of Mortar Board has an ongoing relationship with the King Kennedy Community Center, a local center that provides tutoring and after-school care for children. In 2005, they stepped in to spearhead a Christmas gift campaign designed to provide Christmas gifts to all the children involved with King Kennedy. With the help of the campus community and generous donations, all the gifts were collected and wrapped, and then delivered by the chapter to the center. With the Fall Chapter president dressed as Santa Claus, the Laurels chapter was able to provide joy in the lives of the children just in time for Christmas."

This year, the Laurels Chapter of Mortar Board continued "The Giving Tree" project to benefit the children who attend the King Kennedy Community Center in Ravenna, Ohio. King Kennedy is a community center for neighborhood children, from 5 to 18 years old, in an economically poor area. They come after school for help with homework, but it is more then a tutoring facility; it gives a sense of community and caring to the children. The center provides holiday parties, learning facilities, and weekend field trips.

The Giving Tree is simple in nature; it’s a literal tree on which ornaments are hung with requests for gifts. The ornaments were sent over by the tutors of the King Kennedy Center, which we than placed on the tree in the Student Center. For ten days through late November and early December, we "tabled" from 10am to 3pm - signing up generous people who pledged to buy gifts for a child. We collected pledges and cash donations from university students, faculty, police, and staff. At the end of the two weeks, only a few ornaments remained and our project chair, Kelly Foxworthy was able to use the cash donations to purchase these gifts.

The following Tuesday we had a ‘wrapping party’. Mortar Board members and kind volunteers joined forces to wrap, sort, and tag the gifts. Ann Gosky catered the event with pizza and hot chocolate in appreciation for our help and we thanked her as well, because without her, none of this would have been possible. She has been invaluable to the King Kennedy Canter and to our involvement with it.

On Friday, December 8th, we went to the King Kennedy Center to pass out the gifts during their holiday party. The King Kennedy Center was more than grateful and each child was able to go home with a present.

This project involved over 70% of our members who collectively volunteers over 180 hours of their time. It is a wonderfully uniting, sometimes crazy and hectic, but incredibly rewarding experience for everyone.

Ms. Gosky sums up what this project meant to all those involved – especially the children:

“It really is more than a project it is about giving something very special to children who sometimes are not treated as special as they are. They are certainly loved but sometimes the economic realities of being poor are difficult to overcome. They will feel especially blessed and their Christmas will be full of a special joy because of your outreach, care, and compassion. …Thank you for putting the true meaning into Christmas for these young people.
Fondly,
Ann ”

This project earned the Project Excellence Award at the 2006 National Mortar Board Conference.

Congratulations Laurels Chapter of 2005 for your outstanding effort!