Tharptown High School’s Student Council is sponsoring the Adopt-A-Kid program for the second year in a row.

The program provides a way for students to become involved in spreading some holiday cheer to fellow classmates during the holiday season.

“In our area, there are many children who do without during the holidays and we just wanted to make sure we were doing our part to help out,” student council advisor Jamie Key said. “This program also helps the kids feel like they have a hand in helping out kids right here in this school.”

According to student council advisor Tracey Fretwell, the program focuses on students in kindergarten through eighth grade, but children who are younger or older could also be included if there was a special circumstance.

To begin the program, letters were sent to each teacher asking them to identify the students in their classrooms who might have a specific need this Christmas.

After the student council collected this list of names, they sent letters to each child’s parents asking for clothing sizes and toy ideas.

All of this information was transferred to a paper ornament that was assigned a number and hung on the Christmas tree in the front entryway of the high school.

Students were allowed on Wednesday to “adopt” one of these kids and student council president Izzy Garcia said that there was a great response to the program.

“When we put the ornaments out on Wednesday, they were all gone within 15 minutes,” Garcia said. “The students here are excited about helping someone for Christmas.”

Garcia said that this excitement comes from living in a small community and knowing that the gifts will go to someone in that same community who really needs them.

“Getting to see those happy faces when we give out the gifts really makes it all worth it,” he said.

Those happy faces are not the faces of the children, however. Fretwell said that the kids never know that the gifts came from the Tharptown Student Council.

“We give the gifts we receive to the student’s parents and they give them out as they see fit,” she said. “We want this to be about them, not about us.

“This program has been so rewarding and we hope that it grows every year. I just want to encourage other student councils in the county to do something like this for the kids in their schools. It really does make a difference for a lot of people.”

The program also includes a special “Snacks with Santa” event that will take place Wednesday morning. The event is sponsored by different clubs at THS and students participating in the program will be able to talk to Santa and let him know what they want for Christmas.

Fretwell added that people in the community are welcome to participate in the Adopt-A-Kid program by getting an ornament off the tree or by bringing toys or clothing to the school. The deadline for gifts is Wednesday at 3 p.m.