The Giving Tree
This is an organized effort to assist children and families during Christmas time. It is inspired in the famous children’s book “The Giving Tree”. It is a 1964 children’s book about a tree who happily gives what she can to a young boy. First, she gives him shade. Then apples. She even lets him carve initials into her. As the boy grows up, he needs more. So he takes her branches and eventually cuts down her trunk. At that point, the tree is alive, but nothing but a stump. Yet the boy, now an old man, still needs more. He needs a seat. She gives it to him. “And the tree was happy” (The last line of the book).Every year, at the beginning of Advent, Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish Human Concerns Committee sets up two Christmas Trees in both vestibules. The tree is filled with tags in its branches; each tag has the name of a toy for a specific child. Parishioners of Our Lady Queen of Peace are encouraged to take a tag, purchase the toy, and bring it to Sunday Mass the weekend before Christmas. Toys are properly distributed among the children of the parish school.