Every holiday season, students of La Salle are asked to participate in the annual Christmas Drive. Director of Service Ms. Olyvia Conner said that the Christmas Drive is where low-income families at Lot Whitcomb send La Salle a list entailing what they would like for Christmas, allowing our community to “help them support and supplement their holidays,” she said. 

“Each homeroom got assigned a family,” Ms. Conner said. “They pick the gift and they are supposed to buy it, wrap it, and bring it back to their homeroom. That’s the biggest way that everyone — every student  — is getting involved.”

According to Ms. Conner, the goal was to have every student bring in an item, which Ms. Conner said would turn out to be about 650 gifts for the Lot Whitcomb families. In the end, this goal was almost met, and Ms. Conner was pleased with the turnout.

From diapers to toys, the gifts were ready to be given to families during the week of Dec. 11.

Ms. Conner was very excited to see students working to make this happen and bring joy to families, especially those who were only expecting a few gifts but ended up receiving multiple for each child.

Respond to the poor and overcome injustice, as well as respect for all persons, are two of La Salle’s core values. Ms. Conner said that as Lasallians, the community’s job is to care for one another and help others no matter their status, so donating to Lot Whitcomb is a great way to demonstrate these core values.

“Again, just being able to step outside yourself and realize that there’s a lot you can do to help another person, even if in a small way, like that small gift,” she said.

In the end, Ms. Conner hopes that Lot Whitcomb families know that, “there are lots of people who love them and care about them and want to support them,” she said. “I think humanity in the world thrives on community. So I would hope that they know that they’re part of our community and that we love, love having them here with us.”