Every child deserves to have a holiday season worth remembering. This year, the Charlotte Catholic High School Anthropology Club participated in the Catawba Nation: Yap Hinda kuri or “Tree of Good Spirit”.  The Tree of Good Spirit is similar to the Angel Tree, where donors are fortunate to sponsor a child or families for the Holidays.  Tree of Good Spirit assists in giving children and their families a plentiful Christmas.  This initiative is organized as part of the Catawba Indian Nation Family Services Division.

I began by reaching out to the Director of Family Services to find out timelines and when/where to sign-up.  Our club selected a six-year-old boy from the Sign-Up Genius and went to work.  Members of the club were given a list of things our little boy wanted for Christmas.   It was so fun to read and divide his list for shopping.   He asked for toy musical instruments, toy cars, Sonic the Hedgehog toys, Avengers action figures, clothes, and shoes. This little boy is also quite the big Washington Commanders fan. Each member of the club signed up for a specific item on the list. At the end of the week, I collected and inventoried all of the gifts donated for the drive.  I coordinated a drop-off date and time and delivered them to the Catawba Nation in early December.

Several take-aways from this experience.  I was warmed and encouraged by how quickly our club members acted to shop specifically for our special little six-year-old.  It was a great experience to be able to give this child gifts on his wish list to open up on Christmas morning.  Our club members were happy to impact his young life in positive way; even on a small scale.   I hope to raise funds throughout the year through my NPO, The Sage Project as one of our primary drives/endeavors for the year.  We plan to participate annually and with more funds raised possibly sponsor several children. We have already started accumulating donations for next year.  There are so many ways to contribute; it makes my head spin, at times!  The future is exciting!  I can’t wait to see the long-term impacts of our club and the Sage Project.