Holiday Hope

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By Amanda Sutts, Reporter
December 28, 2009
Filed under News & Features

Christmas is a time for sharing and being charitable. There are many ways to be charitable during this three-month winter wonderland. One way is to donate gifts and time to those people that need it most.

Every year, around this time, Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) contacts Social Services, who promptly sets FBLA up with a family in need. FBLA has documented doing this very charitable act for at least nine years, though they have been doing it for much longer. Most of the time, the families who receive the aid are single-parent families that usually rely on food stamps. Since these are local families, their identity is protected. Not even the school knows their names. This year FBLA is supporting a small family containing a mother, a one-year old girl, and a two-year old boy.

When asked why the FBLA goes out of their way to help people during the holiday season, Mr. Hauger told this story:
One year FBLA was late for the deadline for the gifts, so they brought the gifts to a detached garage that was converted into an apartment, which they are not supposed to do. When the mother came home, they did not know what to do because they weren’t even supposed to be there, but the mother burst into tears of joy because she did not know what her family was going to do for Christmas.

Mr. Hauger says that he likes to surprise the families and just make them feel loved.

There is a sign-up sheet that many generous students signed up next to what they wanted to buy for each different member of this family. FBLA will then give the gifts to Social Services and the gifts will then be delivered to the families.