Volunteers wrap a brighter Christmas for county’s children in need

Kate Lewit and Forsythe 8th graders Bella Simonte and Ryan Thomas-Palmer team up.

Twenty Anna’s Kindness volunteers, students and parents, helped make Christmas a little brighter for many children in Washtenaw County tonight.

Our volunteers wrapped over 100 Christmas presents for children in need, presents which will be distributed by the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office in partnership with the Magic of Christmas program.

Forsythe 8th grader Autumn Gorman carefully tapes a gift.

Most of Tuesday night’s volunteers had joined with Anna’s Kindness previously, so there were plenty of familiar faces at all the wrapping tables in the Freeman Environmental Education Learning Center in Ann Arbor.

Forsythe 8th graders Bella Simonte, Autumn Gorman, and Ryan Thomas-Palmer wrapped presents with guidance from Anna’s Kindness host Kate Lewit. Anna’s brother and fellow 8th grader Alex LeFort teamed up with Forsythe teacher Leanne Hinz to wrap gifts, right next to 6th grader Norah LeCloux and her mother, Alison.

Forsythe 6th graders Noah Silkworth and Nicholas Colias — who had just helped our charity serve breakfast to those in need on Saturday morning — returned Tuesday to wrap presents with Nicholas’ mom, Stacy.

Slauson Middle School 8th grader Allison Nutt and her mother Laurie were wrapping at the front table, right next to the large stacks of unwrapped presents which, by the end of the first hour, had melted away and were finished.

And just down from them, were a few of our Anna’s Kindness alumni, 9th grade girls who had volunteered with the charity last year as middle schoolers: Ann Arbor Pioneer students Hayley Marchand and Melanie Valtadoros, and Skyline High School freshman Sophia Morgan were all joined by their parents. Hayley and Sophia received the Anna’s Kindness Award last year at Forsythe.

We would like to thank Leanne Hinz and Kate Lewit for helping host the event and provide guidance to our student gift wrappers; thank you to Sgt. Eugene Rush and the other Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office wrappers for allowing us to help; and a very special thank you to Shari and the Magic of Christmas for permitting Anna’s Kindness to be even more involved in their wonderful mission this year.

#randomactsofanna

Anna’s Kindness alumni Hayley Marchand and Sophia Morgan work together on a pair of gifts.

Sixth grader Norah LeCloux gets help from her mother Alison.

The Anna’s Kindness volunteers at Magic of Christmas included: (seated left) Sophia Morgan, Hayley Marchand, Melanie Valtadoros, (front left) Laurie Nutt, Maria Murphy, Nicholas Colias, Noah Silkworth, Norah LeCloux, Bella Simonte, Ryan Thomas-Palmer, Allison Nutt, (back left) Chuck Marchand, Fran Marchand, Wendy Valtadoros, Alex LeFort, Autumn Gorman, Alison LeCloux, Leanne Hinz, Chris Morgan, and Kate Lewit.