Below is a letter from Beth Arnold, the Giving Tree Chairperson

With the holidays approaching quickly, it is once again time, to share our good fortune with the local community of Shanghai! As we have in previous years, we are donating Chinese New Year gift bags to the children of a migrant workers school, through the Giving Tree program. This program has grown by leaps and bounds in the last few years, and this year, is providing 10,000 Chinese children with bags!

We are sponsoring PuGuang migrant school in PuDong, and will be collecting bags for 527 students, one for each child in the school. There will be 2 boy, and 2 girl bags, put in each elementary school classroom, and any family who is interested in filling one of them can take one. It would be appreciated if you would give the teacher the bag number, your name, and cell phone number, so that we can keep track of where the bags are. If the bags for any given classroom are already gone, you can pick one up during the week in front of the HS cafeteria, or at the ES Literacy event.

The bags are to value between 150 and 200 RMB (the program asks that you not exceed this number, as they want all bags to seem fairly equal in value), and first priority is a coat, shoes, and a book or toy. The empty bags, along with all of the information regarding the child it is for (sex, age, sizes), will be available in the classrooms, as well as outside of the MS/HS cafeteria during lunch, at the MS/HS PTSA meeting, and at the ES Literacy event.

We are also collecting monetary donations for the Giving Tree program, to be used for other schools or organizations. If you are interested in making a donation, instead of filling a bag, any amount that you would like to give would be greatly appreciated, and can be placed in an envelope marked “Giving Tree,” and given to your child’s teacher.

Once a bag has been filled, the handles need to be tied to avoid anything falling out, and then returned to the school. Collection will be from November 23th thru December 4th. We need to have all bags and donations in by this date, as we are hoping to deliver the bags on December 10th.

Thank you so much for helping us with this cause! We will make so many less fortunately children happy, during this very important Chinese holiday!

Best Regards,

Beth Arnold

Giving Tree Chairperson