The Giving Tree Program at CSDB:

Written by Allison Sambrook, School Counselor 

Every year, CSDB hosts the Giving Tree Program for students who are experiencing financial difficulties. We start in mid-October by collecting references of students who may benefit from the Giving Tree Program. Then, we contact the referred students’ parents to see if they wish for their child to participate in the program. For this year, we received 33 references, and 31 out of 33 parents accepted having their children participate in this program. Each student gets a letter assigned and has 5 items listed. Then, we create physical and digital ornaments with a brief description of the child (17 y.o., boy) and a letter (A, B, C, etc). When the physical and digital ornaments are ready, CSDB sends out information about the Giving Tree program through emails and on CSDB’s social media. 

This year, staff and community members have been incredibly generous with the Giving Tree program, and we were able to fulfill all the items listed on physical and digital ornaments. We organized the gifts and packed them in black bags with corresponding students’ names. We sent out bags full of gifts for our dorm students, and contacted the day students’ families to pick up the gifts. It gladdens my heart to see the Giving Tree program being successful, due to the generosity of staff and community members. Our students had Christmas gifts under the tree for this holiday! May the joy and cheer touch all of you.