Several clubs are organizing opportunities for students and faculty to donate gifts for children in need through various holiday toy drives in hopes of bringing the community together for a good cause.

National Honor Society, Kids Come First, and Student Council are involved with collecting donations for community organizations including Worcester County Department of Children and Families, Snowflake Toy Drive for Youville House in Worcester, and Children’s Hospital end-of-the-year Toy Drive.

Faculty, staff, and students are excited about the drive.

“I am most excited to go shopping with the other NHS Officers and come out with a huge haul of presents!” NHS President Senior Katelyn Li said. “In the cafeteria, we set up the holiday tree with mittens hanging from it. Each mitten has a certain gift, like a teddy bear, that students at Algonquin can purchase and donate. National Honor Society is also holding several bake sales to raise money for the Toy Drive.”

People who chose to donate will take a mitten from the tree and purchase the requested gift. They will then drop the gift off in NHS adviser Nicole Ruffo’s classroom, E108.

Ruffo believes that an event like this can help bring the community together.

“The Toy Drive’s goal is to bring all Algonquin community members together for a cause,” Ruffo said. “We are hopeful that with the Toy Drive, students, teachers, staff, sports teams, and clubs all come together and participate in backing up this worthy cause.”

Custodian John Souza fully supports the Toy Drive.

“I like when the tree is full of notes and the next second the notes are all gone,” Souza said.

Souza’s sentiments are shared by others in the Algonquin community.

“Being part of something like this, when you go to places like the Mustard Seed in Worcester, or Youville House in Worcester, and you see what their caseload is and the kids that they serve and the idea that most of us have all had a really good winter holiday with gifts in our life, but these kids have never had a winter holiday gift before,” Student Council adviser John Barry said. “I think that that is all the motivation you really need to want to be part of something like this.”

The toy drive will be collecting toys for children in need until December 16.