“The mission of Give-a-Gift is to provide children in our area a chance to have a magical Christmas in getting that one toy they always wanted,” said Gina Fredrick, the Student Government adviser in charge of the Give-a-Gift campaign.

Give-a-Gift is a campaign to collect gifts for underprivileged kids in our community. Give-a-Gift just completed its 11th year of giving and while it may be getting more difficult to organize and accomplish without homeroom, the NDA community is still donating.

“With homeroom not being weekly, we found it more difficult to inform students and staff that Student Government was leading the project again. Thankfully, several classrooms joined together and did just what homerooms used to do, so that was a big help,” said Fredrick.

In the past, most homerooms took names with some taking as many as 3, but with the new homeroom scheduling and convocation taking homeroom’s spot on Fridays it’s harder to organize for a homeroom. Luckily some teachers, like English teacher Carolyn Brown, found ways to donate through her classes.

“The kids have been amazing,” said Brown. “One little comment has led to a dozen Give-a-Gift donations from my classes. When one class decided to donate a few bucks and take a name tag, I told my next class and they decided to give even more.”

This year 85 gifts were donated to underprivileged kids in our community.

“NDA is about many things, and service to others is very important to us, and therefore we try our best to provide this joy during the holiday time,” said Fredrick.

One of the biggest challenges is knowing how many names to take as a school. Not knowing if the community will donate enough is always a challenge that the Gift-a-Gift campaign has to face.

“The most difficult part is estimating how many requests we can accept. We know there is greater need than what we can help with, so it’s tough to only be able to accept a specific number of wishes,” the IT director explained.

Even with this challenge, the Notre Dame community comes through each year with their dedication to service and helping others.

“NDA is about many things, and service to others is very important to us. Therefore we try our best to provide this joy during the holiday time,” said Fredrick.