Student council members load bags of gifts into van to be delivered to Park District of LaGrange (Moran/LION).

With temperatures dropping and the holiday season approaching, LaGrange’s annual Secret Santa Program is in motion once again. The LaGrange Rotary Club, Community Nurse Health Center, and LT students have all come together to provide gifts for underprivileged children in the upcoming holiday season. 

“The [Secret Santa] program is something the community gets involved with to contribute to making people’s holiday seasons better,” student council president Jack Micaletti ‘24 said. “The goal is to spread joy and give underprivileged children and families a better holiday season.”

In November, LT students, staff, and community members were encouraged to sign up and “adopt” a child affiliated with the La Grange Secret Santa program, Micaletti said. Student council takes the lead in these endeavors. 

Through this “adoption” process, each shopper is assigned a child’s interests, age, and specific wishlist. The next step is to shop for these items. The price limit this year was $145 per child. Shoppers went down the list and gathered essentials such as hats and gloves, along with games and toys pertaining to each child’s interests. 

“It’s so special to some kids,” student council secretary Olivia Thomas ‘24 said.
“You don’t really realize how impactful it is, because they get to experience things that they otherwise might not have.”
The gifts were then brought all together at LT, where they were sorted by student council and taken to the Park District of LaGrange, Micaletti said. Each year, there are an estimated 160 children adopted. However, the goal is to always be increasing this amount.

While student council leads the program, the National Honor Society, LT families, and LT sports teams have also come together to participate in this community service project. 

“It’s really an opportunity for students, staff, teams, clubs, and families to do some good in the community,” Director of Student Activities and student council sponsor Peter Geddeis said.

Student council suggests that people get paper lawn bags and fill them with the gifts, Geddeis said. These are typically dropped off by main entrances at both campuses. Each year, gifts are stocked up into offices to be later dropped off.

“At South Campus, you physically cannot enter my office. The whole floor is covered in bags full of gifts,” Geddeis said. “[The Secret Santa Program] is just a really good way to show all the good that the LT community can do.” 

Gift packages were officially collected on Nov. 29 and distributed to the families from Dec. 4-8.