The end of every year is a time with much to celebrate. Unfortunately, even in this time of celebration, many families do not have the means to guarantee gifts under the tree on Christmas morning.

Enter Adopt A Family, an annual project that reaches out to families in need of a little help during the holiday season.

Every year, assistant principal Kevin Ames encourages clubs on campus to participate in Adopt A Family.

“I match that [family] with a club [on campus]. The club then looks at what [the family needs], and then they go shopping.”

Each wish list is different, but they have one common theme: they are just typical wishes and wants. The typical Adopt A Family wish list includes gift cards, toys, clothes, books, and even gifts as big as bikes.

This program is in its 7th year here at Perry, and will not be going away anytime soon.

Ames commented that “[on this campus,] it is one of those things that we do every year that I really look forward to. And I think the clubs really look forward to [it].”

But clubs are not the only ones that are excited. Staff members also play a large role in the orchestration of this event, all the while enjoying the good that Adopt A Family can do.

Administration secretary Nancy Martino is one of the many staff who is behind the scenes. She commented that “[this project is special because] it is that avenue that we get to share. You don’t get to share most of the time of the year.  In a small part, we get to help make somebody’s holiday a little more special.”

Adopt A Family at Perry will conclude this year at the end of the semester. It is then the job of numerous volunteers to wrap and deliver the gifts, all the while making sure that the needs of families are being met.

“On the week of finals, we wrap all the gifts here on campus,” Ames said. “We have the limo come up with [Santa and his elves] and we collect all the gifts. [Then,] we actually go out with Santa and deliver the gifts to them at their houses.”

These little touches and details are enough to make the holidays special for everyone involved.

Career Center specialist Pat Phillips is one of those volunteers who wraps hundreds of gifts for Adopt A Family. She believes that the reason that Adopt A Family is worthwhile is because “families are thrilled to get these gifts when they normally don’t have that money to spend.”

Martino concluded that, “[Adopt A Family] just makes people aware of own whole community. Sometimes, we get so busy with our own lives that we don’t maybe notice that someone is struggling or how strong people actually are. This is an event that allows us to service our whole community.”

“I am always humbled [to see how this program helps people]” Phillips commented. Ames agreed, commenting that when families receives the gifts, “[there are] a lot of tears [and] people are happy.”

Adopt A Family is slowly changing lives, both on the giving, and the receiving end.