One of the many school activities that Western does is Angel Tree, run by the Leadership class. Each homeroom (if they wanted to) got assigned one child to raise money for.  Then the money would be used to buy presents to make the child’s Christmas more enjoyable. Max Miller, a freshman in the leadership class said, “Apparently the secretary [from the schools] started crying when they found out [how much money WAHS raised].”

The goal was to raise $75-100 per class, but each kid got about $85. “With that amount of money you can buy them a couple things or you can buy them one big thing like a bike, which a couple kids are going to get,” said Hannah Kearns a student in Leadership.  Western raised a total of $3,600 this year.

If one class did not raise enough money the Leadership class would distribute the money so each kid will have around the same amount.  Western has done this in the past and has been successful. Kearns said, “I think that we are starting to take on more kids as it becomes more popular [around the school] and people start contributing.”

Western is raising the money for Scottsville Elementary School, Yancey Elementary School, and a few kids through the Salvation Army, a total of thirty-seven kids. “We looked around the community and looked where there were more needs in the county which would be in the southern part, where these schools are located. Then through the guidance counselors [at those schools] we figured out who needed the presents and figured out what they might want, then we can get their presents.”  These schools do not even have transportation to and from school.

During the weekend of December 6 and 7, the Leadership students bought the presents for the child their homeroom was assigned to. “You can get them whatever you think they would like based off their wishlist and then next week during Leadership we are wrapping them.” Kearns said.

“A lot of people take for granted waking up on christmas morning and having so many presents under the tree but they do not always realize so its really good for people to help with this[Angel Tree].”