Walking around campus this holiday season, you might have seen some Christmas trees with certain ornaments on them. Make no mistake, these aren’t normal Christmas trees; they’re actually Angel Trees.
“The Angel Tree program is a new initiative started by leadership this year. They take lists from the Toys for Tots program of toys needed for kids in need and make ornaments that represent those toys. The tree is open to anyone in our community—students, teachers, and staff—where they can pull an ornament, purchase the item listed, and bring it to the Toys for Tots box,” says Leadership Teacher Wendy Connelly.
Amador has a long history of helping those in need. This year, however, the school decided to do something a little different.
“I’ve seen Angel Trees before, and a lot of people in my committee knew about them, too. I’ve noticed them at churches, local bakeries, and even places like Walmart. We all thought it was a great way to make toy drives more interactive and give people something meaningful to hold onto when they donate. So my committee—Savannah and I—started talking about how we could make toy drives more interesting and engaging for people,” said Lucie Apard ‘26.
The season of giving
Leadership students hoped this program would impact the community positively during this giving season.
“Our goals are just to gain as many toys as we can. It’s really about bringing people’s awareness to this and getting them to come support our community and bring toys for these kids—just to make their holidays a little bit better,” said Savannah Stoehr ‘27.
Angel Trees offer a great deal of flexibility in what people can purchase, making the program highly successful. It also provides toys for millions of children in financially struggling households. The Angel Tree program was originally started by the Salvation Army around 45 years ago; however, many charitable organizations have their own iterations of the program.
“Every year, Amador does a holiday donation drive to help people in need. In the past, we’ve done Adopt-a-Family, but this year we thought it would be good to try something new. The Angel Tree seemed like a great opportunity that gave people more flexibility with what they purchased. We thought it would be a fun option for Amador this year,” said Connelly.
