G2S students selling Christmas trees for charitable causes

Freshmen with the “Home Alone” tree

G2S students selling Christmas trees for charitable causes

By Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief

West Shore School News is a presentation of West Shore Educational Service District in partnership with Mason County Press and Oceana County Press. 

SCOTTVILLE — The students of Gateway to Success Academy are selling decorated Christmas trees and donating the money to select charities. The project is part of the school’s social emotional learning curriculum which the students spend two days a week learning about and implementing social emotional learning skills. As part of the curriculum, students are required to participate in community service learning. 

Seniors with “Peace, Love and Happiness” tree

“This project was a great way to engage all of our students in gaining community service hours with decorating the Christmas trees,” said John Chalko, G2S social worker/athletic director. “All students involved helped to create a Christmas tree along with what local charity they would like to donate the proceeds to.”

Each grade selected a charity: Seniors, COVE; juniors, Lakeshore Food 4 Kids; sophomores, Five CAP; freshmen, HELP Ministries; Middle school (two groups), Mason County Animal Shelter and Roys Kids (Oceana County). 

The tree themes included: seniors, “Peace, Love and Happiness”; juniors, “Candy Tree”; sophomores, “Winter Wonderland Tree”; freshmen, “Home Alone Tree” (based on the movie); middle school, “Inception Tree” (mini trees inside) and “Snowman Tree.” 

The trees were donated by Nickelson Tree Farm. Most of the decorations were created by the students as part of their project based learning curriculum. 

The trees are for sale for a minimum of $150. All trees come fully decorated with lights and tree stand. Anyone interested in purchasing a tree or donating to one of the select charities  can contact Chalko at jchalko@g2sacademy.net or 231-845-0922. All collections and sales must be completed by Dec. 20. 

Juniors with “Candy Tree”

Sophomores with “Winter Wonderland” tree

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