Being tight on holiday cash hasn't stopped students from giving presents to foster children in New Mexico.
ASUNM Community Experience is co-sponsoring a giving tree with the SUB to support Friends of New Mexico, a group that helps foster children.
Chelsea Armstrong, assistant director of Community Experience, said the organization gets in touch with social workers to find out what the kids want for Christmas.
But SUB marketing representative Samantha McNulty said the giving tree is not necessarily affiliated with the Christmas holiday.
The concept of the giving tree is to give UNM students the opportunity to give back to the community. It is a great way to bring joy to children during the holiday season regardless of the religion students celebrate, she said.
UNM senior Sara Levin is a member of the B'nai Israel Synagogue. She said the giving tree is a good idea but feels there should be a celebration of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah as well.
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She said the opportunity to give is not affiliated with one kind of religion, and it should be about what is in the heart.
"If people can do good deeds and capture the holiday spirit as a sense of humanity instead of consumerism, they should do it," Levin said.
This year Community Experience members collaborated with residence halls, which usually do a giving tree of their own.
Armstrong said the giving tree was a huge success last year. By the end of the semester all the tags had been picked up, and all the children received the gifts they asked for.
"So far we've been replenishing the tags every couple days, because the tree has been left bare," Armstrong said.
ASUNM Lobo Spirit Committee members are taking pictures with Lobo Louie and Lobo Lucy dressed as Mr. and Mrs. Claus for $1 on Wednesday at the SUB. Money from the event will go toward purchasing gifts for the giving tree.
Armstrong said the giving tree is a popular holiday project. She said they decided to support foster kids because so many children are in the foster care system in New Mexico. On average, children stay in the New Mexico foster care system for about 35 months, she said.
"It's said that if a child has been in foster care for more than 22 months, the system has failed them," Armstrong said.
She said it has been great to see UNM students taking time out of their busy schedules to help the kids.
"Even though students are poor, they're still helping those less fortunate than them," Armstrong said.
McNulty said this year students can participate by delivering the gifts to the children in their hometown when they visit for the holiday break.
"If a student is going home to Taos for the holiday, they can take the gifts and drop them off at the Taos office," McNulty said.
Community Experience members would like to deliver all of the gifts by Dec. 21.
Students can pick up a tag from in the SUB and return the requested gift unwrapped to the ASUNM or the Student Residence Center offices.
