‘Tis the season – for giving that is. And two Bellevue schools are leading the way, collecting a variety of items for people in need this holiday season.

Last week at St. Louise Parish School, students worked to collect food items as part of their annual November Thanksgiving Basket Project.

Led by the two sixth grade classes, this marked the first year in which the school has partnered with Hopelink Food Bank in Bellevue, the organization chosen by the sixth grade classes as their year-long service project.

For the Thanksgiving Basket Project,the entire school supported the 6th graders in their mission to feed families in need. Through their efforts, the students donated 1,500 pounds of food to Hopelink, providing Thanksgiving meals to 20 families.

Bellevue’s Eastside Christian School also continued its tradition of charitable giving this year, as they served as an official collection point for the Operation Christmas Child program.

The school has been involved with Operation Christmas Child, a year-round project through Samaritan’s Purse, for several years, but this is the first year the school served as a collection site for the Eastside.

Collection Site Coordinator Tina Ogimachi said the school decided to be a collection site because they saw it as a great way to serve the community and as a way to let people know where the school is. She said several hundred boxes – comprised of items including T-shirts, toys, school supplies, washcloths, toothbrushes and toothpaste – were dropped off throughout the week.

On Friday, Nov. 16, Eastside Christian teacher Suzie Fouble and her third graders took a field trip to Target to purchase items to create four boxes to donate.

She broke her class in to four groups and allotted them $20 each to spend; the girls shopped for items to create a box for a girl around their age, and the boys shopped for a boy. At the end of the trip they had spent a little more than expected – $125 – and had enough supplies to fill five boxes, one more than they planned.

All boxes collected in Bellevue will be transferred to Tukwila next week. From there the shoe box gifts will be hand-delivered to needy children in 100 countries around the world.

Third grader Clay Marshall said his favorite part of the Operation Christmas Child project was getting to buy toys for other kids.

“We were not being selfish,” he said.

His classmate Renee Yeung added it was nice to buy other children gifts so they could have a nice Christmas too.