Princeton ISD and its supportive families know how to take care of the community, especially those in need. For the 17^th consecutive year, every child that is part of the Angel Tree program has been adopted and will experience a better Christmas because of the generosity of others.

The Angel Tree program, which is sponsored by the Lions Club in conjunction with the Princeton Independent School District, totaled an estimated $86,000 in giving this year alone. Charitable contributions have exceeded a half million dollars since its inception 17 years ago, and the total is steadily creeping toward $1 million to help the community’s less fortunate children.

Before being adopted as the Lions Club’s local service project, the Angel Tree was created by the PISD transportation department as the “Fill the Bus” initiative, which has evolved into a massive communitywide effort.

Princeton’s explosive growth has brought with it more need.

For this year, Angel Tree assisted 866 students and 306 families.

“We wouldn’t be able to do this without the help of all those who are working extra to make it happen,” Lions Club member and PISD Superintendent Donald McIntyre said. “This rings true every year, and we just want to thank everyone for being a part of this effort.”

Mr. McIntyre emphasized that Angel Tree is successful every year because of the people who make it happen.

“I’m absolutely amazed and moved by the heartfelt giving of our community,” he said.

Organizers say they are always a little surprised by the generosity of the donors.

“It’s easy to get emotional when you hear from our donors who are making a big difference in the lives of so many children,” Mr. McIntyre said. “A local business, Jubilee Company, and their employees adopted 100 angels this year, and one of our teachers at James Elementary and her family made a $15,000 donation this year.”

According to Mr. McIntyre, the behind-the-scenes help is the key to making the effort run smoothly.

“We have secret shoppers who give of their time to purchase the gifts on behalf of the donors who contributed the funds,” Mr. McIntyre said. “And our employees really make the wheels turn. We have Katie (Guinn) who spent every day at the distribution site making sure the donations were organized when they came in and the family received their gifts.”

The PHS student groups are another significant source of assistance.

“I’m so proud of all our student groups who make it their mission to provide for others,” Mr. McIntyre said. “Every year, our organizations join efforts to adopt angels, and I always love seeing the students come in to drop off their donations.”

All this shopping and all these donations cannot get anywhere without help, and the entire effort translates to hours and hours of time volunteers had to give behind the scenes.

“We can’t thank our volunteers enough, because they enable Angel Tree to help our children,” he said. “Every donation and every volunteer hour go to help a local Princeton student and their younger siblings have a merrier Christmas.”

About the Angel Tree photos:

Harper Student Council and sponsor, counselor Amanda McIntire, set a goal to raise enough funds to adopt a PISD angel, and 5th-graders in student council sold gratitude grams to work toward their goal. Harper StuCo officers, Beckham Deleon, Makayla Ritter, Siri Cheenapally and Paco Serrano, selected gifts for their angel and dropped off donations at the PISD administration building where they got to meet Superintendent Donald McIntyre.

On behalf of FFA, the floral design team dropped off the Angel Tree items purchased with funds raised during Barn Fest.

For Giving Tuesday, Peoples Bank North Texas Market President Matthew Knies and Princeton Branch President Reggie Love presented a check to Lions Club officers Casey Gunnels and Rachel Nicks for the Angel Tree program.

Kent Ackmann and Ryan Gerfers’ boys and girls soccer teams had a joint team dinner and shopped at Walmart for their collective angels.

Members of JRen spoke at the Lions Club meeting about their efforts to support the Angel Tree.

Lions Club members set up the second distribution site at First Baptist Church, which loaned out their gym when donations exceeded the space at the PISD administration building.

Food drive pictures include:

Khara Barnard’s 1st period 8th-grade social studies class at Southard Middle School brought in the most cans for the school food drive.

CATE students in the HVAC and auto tech sorted the 15,000+ non-perishable for distribution.