While some Randolph County families prepare for the holidays, others who are out of work or have had their hours cut are wondering how to buy Christmas presents and take care of their day-to-day needs. The answer is Operation Santa, which provides holiday gifts for students whose families would otherwise be unable to do so.

Diane Derrick, guidance counselor at Archdale-Trinity Middle School, has talked to multiple families who are struggling to make ends meet. During the year, teachers advise her when students can’t pay for school expenses such as a field trip. Some of those families contacted the school to ask for help with Christmas gifts.

“This year, at last count, we have had 35 families ask for assistance, for 80 children, just for calling in here,” Derrick said. “That doesn’t include Operation Santa.”

Operation Santa is a project that Archdale-Trinity schools normally do at this time of year. This year, however, they are being swamped with requests. The project provided gifts for 75 children this year, said Wheatmore student council adviser Courtney Page.

Also heading up the project were Victoria O’Daniel, Wheatmore student council vice-president and Trinity High School student council adviser Amber Brown.

For many of those families, this is the first time they have asked for this type of help.

“A lot of them have been laid off or are working short time, and just can’t make ends meet,” Derrick said.

This year, she continued, the requests focus more on needs rather than wants.

“A good portion of the families are asking for clothing,” she said. “He needs jeans, she needs shoes.”

Derrick is wondering what these families will do after the holidays.

The Spanish Club met Dec. 10 in Lisa Mishoe’s classroom at Wheatmore High School to wrap gifts for the child they sponsored. Spanish Club president Sarah McElwee said that the club began collecting donations right after Thanksgiving.

She was chosen to select and purchase the gifts according to a wish list sent by the recipient’s family. Although she enjoyed helping someone else, the experience was personally satisfying.

“It just makes me so grateful, to know that my parents can afford Christmas gifts,” McElwee said.

After the Spanish Club wrapped their gifts, Mishoe placed a code number sticker on them so that they could be picked up by the appropriate family at a later date.

Clubs and second period classes at Wheatmore sponsored children, in addition to teachers and families who volunteered. Groups, classes and individuals at Trinity High, Wheatmore High, Archdale-Trinity Middle and Braxton Craven schools took part in the effort.