Every year senior Annie Blake-Burke participates in a program called The Giving Tree. The Giving Tree allows children from impoverished neighborhoods all over the Bay Area to receive Christmas gifts, a luxury their parents can not afford to give them. The few weeks before the deadline on Dec. 13, trees are set up around places such as schools or companies with cards on them. The cards are written by the children with their Christmas gifts requests.

This year, Blake-Burke chose to “adopt” three children,  meaning she picked those children’s cards off one of the trees. Blake-Burke specifically chose a two-year-old boy from the tree, because she felt that she could relate as she had a two-year-old nephew. She went to Target with her mother on Nov. 28 to buy the toys. After buying the gifts the children have requested, she attaches the card onto the gift and gives it back to “The Giving Tree” program.

“People take Christmas for granted sometimes. We give presents all the time, but some people don’t have the opportunity and I thought it was important to give back,” Blake-Burke said.