Wilcox High School New Life Campus Outreach Club Tree #758

We are the Christian club at Wilcox High School, although any student regardless of beliefs or not are welcome to the meetings. We have guest speakers as well as student led discussions on the Bible and faith and other subjects interesting to teens. We try to stress what the various denominations have in common; that God loves us and how we can have a relationship with Him. We are a service oriented club as well and look for projects that will help others. This is a great way for the students to find "It is better to give than to receive." (From Acts 20:35)

Our theme this year is based on the Bible verse: "It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto Thy Name, O Most High" Psalm 92:1. For the last five years, we have had a silver glittery star at the top of the tree to symbolize the bright star that shone over the manger where Jesus was born. We also use a Bible verse sign just under the star to honor the Lord, and to encourage the passers-by.

For the last several years we have taken pictures of each student's face and found a foam-type ornament to glue the picture to. This year, the ornaments were musical staffs with the students' smiling faces on them. We collected recyclable applesauce cups and decorated them, then added some old jingle bell ornaments as the "clangers." We also added purple ribbons which looked very attractive.

This is the sixth year our club has participated in Christmas in the Park. Our group has changed over the years as some club students graduate our high school and then new students come in and get involved with the club. This is a very special time for the students to get together ahead of time to come up with a new theme and also to help prepare ornaments, and then to get together and decide on how the ornaments should be arranged.

We do community service projects such as picking up trash around the school or dusting library shelves. Our big projects are buying turkeys and other Thanksgiving foods for the needy through City Team Ministries in San Jose. Another project is to collect blankets to help the homeless and needy in San Francisco and San Jose.

Our club president had this to say: "Decorating a tree every year is a New Life Campus Outreach Club tradition. We look forward to it every year. It is a fun opportunity to bond as friends and brothers and sisters in Christ- all the while creatively worshipping Him. We pray our tree continues to be a source of light and hope throughout this season of joy, and always points to our Lord above."