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The Christmas Spirit

Students Volunteer Locally

(Winter 2006 Newsletter)

Jonathan Tonkowich ('06) and Ingrid Mitchell ('06) and their van filled with cans and Christmas Spirit.

Each year needy residents of Santa Paula, California, benefit from a Christmas Basket Program that relies on the hard work and generosity of many in the community. Without this program, sponsored by the Santa Paula Rotary Club and Boys & Girls Clubs, economically strapped families would have little to prepare for their Christmas dinners, and Christmas trees would shelter fewer toys.

This past Christmas, 22 students from Thomas Aquinas College along with tutors John Goyette (’90), Matthew Walz, and Philip Wodzinski, as well as the College’s Career Counselor, Mark Kretschmer (’99), donated their time and efforts to this worthy cause and made Christmas Day just a little bit brighter for many families.

This year, over 400 underprivileged families living in and around the city of Santa Paula received Christmas baskets filled with food and toys. Volunteers canvassed neighborhoods and grocery stores soliciting both monetary donations and canned good items. Food items and toys were then assembled into Christmas gift baskets and distributed to the needy.

Thomas Aquinas College volunteers collected well over 1000 cans of food and distributed over 500 fliers to residences and businesses. Tutors’ families participated as well and helped sort and pack the Christmas gift packages, making them ready to be delivered. In the true spirit of Christmas, these volunteers helped to give many families the kind of Christmas dinner they otherwise would have gone without.

Mr. Gary Nasalroad, a member of the Santa Paula Rotary Club and chairman of the Christmas Basket Program, singled out the contribution made by the Thomas Aquinas College volunteers. “We had never gone door to door before. Yet in one day, the volunteers from Thomas Aquinas College collected over a thousand cans of food. It was a resounding success and we look forward to the participation of Thomas Aquinas College in next year’s program.”

-- Qtrly Newsletter, Winter 2006