In the spirit of the holiday season, members of Manhattan High’s interpersonal skills class — both mentors and mentees — learned about the importance of giving, not by reading about it in storybooks or watching fuzzy holiday movies about it, but by getting out and doing it themselves.

After conducting a fundraiser at Longhorn Steakhouse, IPS members divided money raised between groups of three of four of themselves, and later took a trip to the local WalMart to purchase gifts for families involved in Adopt-a-Family, based on things that given families liked and needed.

“The family my group bought for has a three-month-old, a three-year-old girl, and a six-year-old boy, so for the baby, we got a high chair and other baby needs,” senior Ale Andrade said. “Then, we wrapped all the presents, and we will be delivering them this week. We’re also baking goodies for the families.”

While this act by IPS benefits the families they “adopted” in obvious ways, IPS students were able to feel that a difference was made not only in the community, but in the way they, themselves, think and feel about the true focus of the winter holiday season.

“It benefited the families because they get what they need, and they can have an amazing and memorable Christmas. The way it benefits IPS is that it shows us the true meaning of Christmas,” Andrade said. “It’s better to do good for others. It just shows that doing good things for others makes you feel really good inside, and shows that there’s much more to Christmas than just to make your own Christmas list.”

In general, IPS students are affected by the activities they do on a daily basis. According to senior Lexie Colston, supporting Adopt-a-Family these past couple of weeks has been a great experience, but just being a part of the IPS family at all is inspiring of acts and projects even bigger than what the group achieved this holiday season.

“Before IPS, I wasn’t very interested in the community. Everything was fine the way it was. After IPS, I’m not happy with how things are, and I want change,” Colston said. “I want to make Manhattan better, and IPS gave me that opportunity. Overall, it gave me the motivation to make a difference.”

They say cold weather brings people together, and for IPS students, working with Adopt-a-Family to support families in the community knitted the group even tighter than it was before, according to Andrade.

“I just loved the amazing bonding we had. We were goofy, and we were all just smiling and laughing the entire time, and I mean, we always do that, but it’s just always nice to do that with IPS while helping others,” Andrade said. “I know everyone in the class pretty well, but this brought us even closer, which I didn’t even know was possible, but it did. I just love doing things like this with my IPS family.”