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Emma Righter

COMING TOGETHER: Middle, Lower and Upper Division students all met in a Lower Division classroom to eat cookies and write letters to Macy’s.

For the past nine years, on the day before exams, all three divisions have come together as one to wrap gifts for children in need. On December 4th, the Upper and Lower Division students and faculty brought in gifts for the students of Redlands Christian Migrant Association (ages 2-14). Middle Division brought gifts for places where its students do community service, such as the Head Start Programs at Jackson Springs, McCloud and Town and Country Commons and the Willis Peters Exceptional Center. In previous years, the Berkeley community has wrapped roughly 1,400 gifts.  This year Berkeley beat their previous record, wrapping 1,500 gifts.

On the day of the Wrap-In, Middle and Upper Division advisories met with Lower Division Discovery Groups. Students wrote letters to Macy’s telling the department store something they can do to help the community. In return for these letters, Macy’s will donate a dollar for each letter to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, an organization that helps kids with life-threatening diseases experience one wish they would like to have such as, meeting a celebrity or going to Walt Disney World. Click for more information on the Macy’s and Make-A-Wish partnership.

The Wrap-In was a day to give back to those outside of the Berkeley community. However, the experience didn’t only help the individuals who received donations. Kim Lawless, Director of Community Engagement and The Berkeley Academy, knows many of the students who received gifts from Berkeley this winter. Lawless said, “I think this is a great opportunity to come together, as a community, to give and to spend time with one another, and to help those who may be without a Christmas gift this season.”