For many members of the College community, performing community service comes naturally.

So, when the opportunity arises to help those in need, these folks respond in a big way, especially at holiday time.

This year, the Keuka community spent the past few weeks collecting toys, personal hygiene items, and food for area children and their families, as well as children and soldiers serving around the world.

A community service staple and College favorite is the Angel Tree Project. Conducted annually, students, staff and faculty select a paper angel from a Christmas tree. The angel contains a child’s age, whether they are male or female, and if they need clothes, a new toy, or both. Those who chose an angel purchase a Christmas gift for that child. Ages of the angels range from four months to 15 years.

The gifts were delivered to the Child and Family Resource Center in Penn Yan last week.

Amanda Guzick, a junior unified childhood/special education major, has participated in the event for two years.

“I enjoy seeing the children’s faces when they open their gifts,” said the Pottsville native.

Another College holiday giving tradition is Operation Christmas Child, a project of Samaritan's Purse, a non-denominational evangelical Christian organization that provides spiritual and physical aid to people around the world.

According to senior unified childhood/special education major Sara Schoonmaker, who coordinated the project, students, staff, and faculty filled shoeboxes with various items, including toys, hygiene products, and school supplies.

A four-year participant in Operation Christmas Child, Schoonmaker says the project provides “good opportunities to help children in the Third World get a gift, because some of the children might not have ever gotten a gift before.”

Schoonmaker, along with members of the Gathered in Faith Together (GIFT) Club, helped fill, sort and wrap boxes.

The GIFT Club was ably assisted by the D.R.I.V.E. (diversity, responsibility, inclusion, vision, and experiential learning) program, where Keuka students serve as peer mentos to young adults with developmental disabilities (see Currents story posted Nov. 16).

Of the more than 100 countries Operation Christmas Child boxes could be sent, several include countries where Keuka students have conducted Field Periods, including Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guyana, Mexico, Ghana, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, India, and Poland.

-- Gretchen Parsells