Throughout the month of December, Madison-Oneida BOCES students and staff have engaged in many community service activities to support local residents and agencies during the holiday season. These include:

• The Health Related Careers class led a campaign to support local senior citizens through the Santa for Seniors initiative, which supports local residents without families. HRC students organized and promoted the project, purchasing items from recipients’ wish lists and encouraging other classes and staff members to donate as well. The CTE center collectively adopted 12 local residents. The class held a gift-wrapping day and teacher Heather Still delivered them to Oneida County for distribution.

Santa for Seniors is a partnership between the Oneida County Office for the Aging, BIG FROG 104 & Slocum-Dickson Medical Group PLLC, and it has become an annual tradition for our HRC class.

• The senior Early Childhood Education classes took their annual "shopping buddies" trip to Sangertown Mall. Students paired up with a peer from our Special Programs secondary classes and helped them with their holiday shopping at stores throughout the mall. Afterward, the groups shared a meal in the food court and visited Santa.

• New Visions seniors in the Professions and Government, Law and Public Administration programs conducted a joint project to contribute care packages to Soldiers' Angels, which supports current and former military members and their families. Students collected supplies, stuffed stockings and wrote letters to include in the packages, which will make their way to both domestic and overseas active duty soldiers and veterans.

• Community Based Occupational Education teacher Jean Thompson and MOBOCES Board Member Sue Carvelli, of Rome, helped coordinate this year’s collection for The Salvation Army’s Angel Tree Coat Drive. In all, students and staff contributed 45 new children’s coats, with eight of them coming from the Conservation class, which used proceeds from various fundraisers to purchase the coats. Jean and Sue delivered the coats to the Salvation Army’s Rome location.

• Each year, MOBOCES coordinates an organization-wide effort to help students from its own K-12 programs who are in need. This year, staff helped 42 of our students and their families with food and household supplies for the break, toys and gifts, and winter clothing. Staff volunteered to sort and wrap items for different students and worked with our Building Services team to deliver the packages.

Community partnerships are a cornerstone of the MOBOCES mission and we are thrilled that so many of our students and staff were able to support their peers, colleagues, neighbors and local service agencies this holiday season.