Carbon Career and Technical Institute students are working to help the homeless.

Last week, the school kicked off its Giving Tree project in an effort to build school awareness of the homelessness problem in Carbon County. The project is inspired by the book "The Giving Tree" by Shel Silverstein.Kimberly Pimble, a senior at CCTI and a member of the SkillsUSA team who spearheaded the project, said it is a project that will benefit not only the students, but the community."We wanted to get everyone involved and make it fun for the students so we decided to have each of the technical areas make a giving tree out of the materials and creativity that they have in their areas," she said. "We made it into a contest, but we are also collecting items to donate to Family Promise of Carbon County and Peaceful Knights."We want to bring awareness to homelessness since there are only two shelters in Carbon County," she said. "We can do something to help it."The trees were judged on Friday afternoon by representatives from Family Promise of Carbon County, and the first place winner will receive a pizza party. Winners of the trees were Auto Collision Repair, first; Graphic Design, second; and Precision Machine, third.Alicia Kline, director of Family Promise, said the trees were all very creative and it was going to be tough to judge.She recognized the underlying meaning of the project, and thanked the students for helping the families in the program."This project is amazing," she said. "I love seeing kids helping other kids and wanting to get involved and help the community."About the GivingTree projectPimble said that donations through the project will be collected throughout the school year and dropped off at the shelters periodically. Items that are being collected range from baby necessities to children and adult clothing to personal care items, office supplies and canned goods, and even a 2002 GMC van.The precision machine technical area is also collecting furniture for Family Promise graduating families.Matthew Curreri and Brittany Higgins, who also worked to organize the project, added that this is going to be bigger than just within the school walls. Another student, Shannon Carroll, was unavailable on Friday."You see people living on benches or in cars, and it really affects them and their children," Curreri said. "Being able to bring the children back into the schools and make them feel like normal kids, that really helps them."He said that he plans to visit both Jim Thorpe elementary schools, as well as the high school to speak to the students about starting a Giving Tree project in the schools.Higgins said students are also currently going out into the community.She spoke about a recent event, Bagger for a Day, held at Country Harvest in Palmerton, where students bagged groceries for seven hours and asked for donations. The group raised $277 for the shelters and plans to do the event once a month.The students said anyone willing to donate items to the school's project is welcome to do so as well.For information on ways you can help Family Promise of Carbon County, call the center at 610-379-4757, visit them at 167 S. Third St. in Lehighton or go to

http://familypromisecarboncounty.com/home.For information on Peaceful Knights, call 610-393-2536, email

peace@ptd.net or visit

http://www.peacefulknights.org.About SkillsUSADavid Reinbold, administrative director of CCTI, commended his students for taking the initiative for this project.He said the Giving Tree project is a community service project that CCTI will submit at the SkillsUSA Pennsylvania State Competition in April.In addition to organizing the project, Pimble, Carroll and Curreri will document the project and present a 60-age logbook and presentation at the competition.If the school places first, the project will move onto the national competition.SkillsUSA is one of the student organizations that CCTI belongs to. It is a partnership of students, teachers and industry working together to ensure America has a skilled workforce. SkillsUSA helps each student excel. They provide educational programs, events and competitions that support career and technical education in the nation's classrooms.For additional photos, check out the photo gallery at

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