The Giving Tree

In Winter 2024, my friend Alexis and I organized Boulder High School’s Giving Tree, an initiative that provides holiday gifts to homeless children in our community. All the children we support are middle-school children in Boulder who are legally considered homeless. We worked with three middle schools, connecting with their community liaisons, and from there, we organized gift lists for every qualifying child. We then created sign-up sheets around our school for people to “adopt” a child’s list. The adopter would then donate the child’s gift request to our school, where we would then package and distribute each gift. It took lots of time, effort, and thorough spreadsheet tracking. But it was completely worth it. In total, The Giving Tree helped 98 families in need, raising over $15,000 in gift donations to support these efforts. This project was one of the most meaningful things I’ve done in my high school career.