Foundations Academy Students Host Giving Tree for Families in Need

Students encouraged to give up one of their holiday gifts for a child in need

BRIGHTON, Colo. (Dec. 12, 2011) – There’s more on the Foundations Academy holiday tree than bulbs and tinsel. This year, the tree is decorated with ornament tags with the age and gender of local children without gifts this year. To help students learn the importance of giving, the charter school erected the Foundations Giving Tree to help local families in need.

“At Foundations, each month of the year is assigned a moral focus virtue which many of our lessons are themed around,” said Joseph Hammond, principal of Foundations Academy. “December’s virtue is ‘self-control’ so we’re asking our students to display self-control by asking for one less gift for themselves in order to provide one more gift for a local child in need.”

In partnership with Almost Home, a nonprofit providing shelter and housing assistance, Foundations students will add gifts to the Giving Tree for kids in the community who wouldn’t otherwise have toys to unwrap. All new, unused toys will be collected at the school and placed in a box to be donated to Almost Home on Dec. 15. The collection is organized by the school’s Moral Focus Committee.

Almost Home helps citizens of Adams County establish self-sufficiency by providing rent and utility assistance, shelter, transitional housing, low-income rentals and bilingual case management.