Around this time of the year, the LITE team is constantly doing their part to help less fortunate families have a successful holiday experience. This year they have already had a food drive and the Angel Tree donation. The team continues to help at Harvesters, and is planning more service activities for the near future.

Recently, the LITE team held a competition between themselves and the football team to see who could collect the most bags of food to donate. There was a total of 17 bags collected, and the LITE team came out winning. The food collected was donated to the United Methodist Church in De Soto, and was a large contribution to their Thanksgiving Food Drive.

“[They] were so thrilled when we showed up with a car load of food,” LITE team leader Jennifer Sosna said.

In addition to their food donations, the LITE team also hosted a school-wide gift donation for their Angel Tree project. Students were given the opportunity to adopt an Angel from the tree in the library and purchase a gift for that child in need.

“We had a really good turn out this year considering the state of the economy,” Sosna said.

The gifts collected will be donated to the Johnson County Christmas Bureau. The Bureau teams with Johnson County Multi-service Centers to help families in need. During the first two weeks in December those families can come to the Christmas Bureau and shop for the holidays. The LITE team helps with this as well.

The LITE team students help the families when they come to buy at the Christmas Shop. The students tour the families around the shop and help them have a successful holiday shopping experience. The team will help on Dec. 4 and 8.

“This was a really rewarding experience for the students to participate in. So we are going back again this year,” Sosna said.

Throughout the year, the LITE team assists at Harvesters, a local clearinghouse for food and related household products. The holiday are no exception, students recently helped on Dec. 3 and plan to go back soon.

In addition, there will be a school-wide bake sale during finals week hosted by the LITE team. The money collected will be donated to local, De Soto Multi-Service Center.

The student body is encouraged to support the LITE team and buy from the bake sale, because that money will help a family in need to have an enjoyable holiday.