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Counting, Erica Nielsen ’27 keeps track of how many presents have been wrapped as the volunteers take a lunch break. The StuCo officers took charge throughout the event to keep all donations organized.
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Examining the cards, Akshara Anand ’29 and Cara Chow ’28 record a reel to show the results of the event to the Westwood community. Student Council (StuCo) officers like Anand had been planning Westwood Gives Back for months to effectively coordinate sponsorships and student attendance.
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Focused, Ava Stivdent ’28 works to wrap one of the donated gifts. Thanks to everyone’s effort, the volunteers ended up wrapping 305 gifts in total.
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Carefully, Nathaniel Horton ’27 writes a message on one of the cards that would later be donated to underprivileged children. These cards contained a link to holiday wishes filmed by Student Council (StuCo) officers.
With bright holiday music and Christmas spirit filling the cafeteria, students gathered on Saturday, Dec. 13, to attend Westwood Gives Back, a schoolwide volunteering event hosted by Student Council (StuCo) where students could either wrap gifts or make cards. The event was sponsored by InCharge Electric Services, LifeWorks, Little Caesars Pizza, Thundercloud Subs, and Bush’s Chicken.
Serving as Westwood’s first schoolwide day of service, StuCo officers spent months planning to maximize attendees and ensure everything ran smoothly.
“We had to run it through all the [Assistant Principals], the admin, and all the [logistics],” StuCo Freshman Co-President Akshara Anand ‘29 said. “Then, we reached out to a lot of people for sponsorships to get money for this event, and we reached out to restaurants for food [donations]. We also researched different nonprofits and then finally came up with LifeWorks. [Due to this hard work], this event went really well [for] a lot of people around us.”
At the event, students had fun rotating through activities, and filmed videos of holiday wishes that the cards would have a link to. However, problems arose when volunteers began to run out of gifts. The SunDancers quickly stepped up, going out to buy more gifts to keep the event running.
“It was really great how people were really willing to help, shoutout to SunDancers,” StuCo Senior Class Vice President Iris Chen ‘26 said. “The people were being very flexible [and] very understanding of us, and I hope they all had fun.”
Other clubs advertised this service project, with attendees coming from the National Honor Society (NHS), HOSA – Future Health Professionals (formerly known as Health Occupations Students of America), Red Cross Club, SunDancers, and more.
“I came here because I want to help out the children,” Nathaniel Horton ‘27 said. “I found out about this opportunity due to the Red Cross Club, [so] I wanted to come and wrap gifts.”
Thanks to the hundreds of donations from students in the past two weeks, the volunteers wrapped 305 presents for underprivileged children. At the end of the event, awards were given to volunteers who showed prominent effort and dedication. Winners were crowned titles such as ‘Most Positive Attitude’, ‘Best Teamwork’, and ‘Best Problem Solver’, and were given certificates signed by Principal Erin Campbell along with Thundercloud Subs Gift Cards.
“I was honestly kind of sad [that the event is over],” Chen said. “I’m glad it went pretty well, and I hope it continues [for years to come].”
