Students embrace month of giving

The month of December is always hectic. Christmas is coming, which means it's time to find gifts for loved ones. For many students, December is the beginning of midterms — those dreaded tests that make or break your first semester final grade.

At Faith Christian High School, students aren't exempt from the frantic studying and frenzied gift-seeking. But for FCS kids, December is also a time of giving, both to fellow students and to a family in need.

Every year in December, Faith has a tradition: Angel Buddies. The Angel Buddy tradition is simple — students sign up and pull a name from a bag. Then, for the next five days, they buy a small gift of about $5 for the student whose name they have pulled.

The trick is, the gift-giver must try to remain anonymous until the end of the week, when their "buddy" will guess who they are. It's a simple way to bring excitement and Christmas spirit to someone, a way to lift tired spirits and encourage them.

It's also a highly anticipated time of the year and a favorite of the many holiday activities at FCS.

Sophomore Justin Glen said, "Angel Buddies is a fun and exciting week when you get a chance and the privilege to both give and receive. My favorite part, though, is being sneaky and making sure that my 'buddy' doesn't see me putting their gifts in their locker."

Another sophomore, Drew Tollenaar, said, "I think my favorite part is keeping it secret. It's not as fun if you know who has you. You never know what you're going to get, and it keeps you guessing the whole week."

Drew said his reason for doing Angel Buddies is: "It's a way you can get to know someone better — and for others to get to know you."

Then there's Adopt-a-Family, another FCS holiday tradition. The junior and senior classes raise money and offer the use of a home for one evening, buying gifts and making a meal for a local family in need.

Travis Dodds, who offered up his home for this year's event, said, "I felt it was really nice to be able to put on a holiday meal for a family in need, and to share the Christmas spirit and love of Christ with them. It was really fun to prepare a meal for them with what fellow students had provided, and I was really glad that we were able to do it with their help and the help of our teacher, Mr. Herrera."

Senior Cody Warta, who participated in the event along with Travis, junior Abbie Rollins and myself, said, "It was an opportunity to extend our outreach into the community and build relationships with people who needed some extra help. It was a chance to uplift the spirits of a family in need as well as uplifting our own spirits. It was a fantastic opportunity for giving — which, of course, is what Christmas is all about: sacrifice and giving."

Elizabeth Andrus is a senior at Faith Christian High School. Her column appears every six weeks in Education.