Community-school partnership brightens the holidays for students

Families of more than 100 students in Catasauqua Area School District received holiday gifts as part of The Giving Tree event. The local police department collaborated with the Catasauqua Community Cares Program (C3P) and the district to hold the benefit, which provided holiday presents to 124 families. Officers contacted local businesses for donations, wrapped the gifts and distributed them to the families. Due to COVID, the usual Shop With A Cop event — where officers would help students purchase and wrap gifts with donated funds — had to be cancelled. However, the officers still found a ways to carry on with this annual benefit to local families.

According to an article in Allentown Morning Call, the C3P initiative began three years ago as a plan to provide backpacks with food to students in need over the weekend. Now, C3P also includes a winter coat drive and a Thanksgiving food drive. Like The Giving Tree, C3P relies on generous donations from local businesses.