Most people think of Christmas as the time of receiving, but really the Christmas season is about giving back to anyone who needs it, especially people in your community.

Everyone knows that the holiday season is supposed to be a happy time, but not everyone gets to experience the joy because they simply can’t afford it or don’t have anyone to spend it with.

There are so many ways to get involved with giving back during this time of year, as well as any time of the year.

Although receiving is nice, nothing beats the gratitude you get from bringing joy to others that may not have had an enjoyable holiday.

If you want to help out in the community but you are not sure how, here are some ideas:

• The Whaley Children’s Center is a great place to volunteer, if you are 18 or are accompanied by an adult you can volunteer your time through physical labor, like decorating children’s rooms, or you can donate presents for the holidays.

• Toys for Tots is an organization that sets up collection boxes to collect toys for children whose parents cannot afford them or for children that don’t have parents. There are Toys for Tots drop offs at most major shopping locations. There is one at Art Van Furniture, 4095 E. Court Street, Burton, as well as at the Burton Police Department.

• Salvation Army bell ringers are popular in our community. Most shopping destinations in the area will have someone ringing a bell and greeting people at the door. These people volunteer their time to receive monetary donations for The Salvation Army, and the money goes to needy families during the holiday season.

If you want to do something more personal and you go to Kearsley High School, here are some projects you can do.

The AP U.S. Government class is organizing to adopt a family for the holidays. Through Adopt a Family, we receive a needy family in the Kearsley district, and, as a group, we put money together and buy the things the family is requesting for the holiday.

Mr. Andy Nester, government teacher, said he believes that volunteering in the community is important.

“It would be great if we could get more people to volunteer and make our community a better place,” Nester said.

Besides adopting a family, another project I, Emily Rose, am going to be involved in that is not mainly focused at the holiday season is starting a food bus at our school. This idea was brought to me and my AP government class by Nester.

What this is, is a way of re-purposing food that the school was going to throw away and, instead, give it to families in need in our own community.

I also wanted to get a group together to go visit a senior center sometime around the holidays to spread cheer with some people that may not specifically have the best holiday season.

If you are interested in helping with any of these activities, or have ideas that you want to share with me, you can email me at the following address: [email protected].