CROSSING INTO COMMUNITY SERVICE

How Two PVI Juniors Gave Back for the Holidays

BY CARTER CASAGRANDE ’25

Getting a Christmas tree can be a big hassle during the holiday season, so PVI juniors Lena Pirato and Riley Deckelman volunteered their time to make this task a little bit easier for others. Lena and Riley spent their Sunday afternoon at St. Timothy’s Catholic Church helping families choose and load their Christmas trees.

The process of picking a Christmas tree entails multiple steps. First, families looked at all the trees and chose which one they wanted to take home. After the selection, Lena and Riley would take the tree off the stand and carry it over to saw it down. Once the tree was sawed and clipped, the girls helped load it into the family’s trunk or tied it on top of their car. This task was so rewarding that Lena and Riley went back to help out again just a few days later!

It’s easy to get caught up in the chaos of the holidays and forget the real meaning of the season, but at the end of the day, there is no better time to give back and volunteer your time to others. Lena said she “enjoyed seeing families get in the Christmas spirit and loved how appreciative they were for the help.” Even offering just a few hours of your time can impact others and inspire them to do the same. “Offering a helping hand was a great way to spread the joy I have for Christmas,” Riley added. Consider ways that YOU can make a difference this holiday season.

The “Oh So Adorable!” (But Misunderstood) Opossum

By Amelia “Mia” Sampilo ’26

I am a nature lover — from trees, wildflowers, and wide-open spaces to creatures that crawl, fly, and swim I love them all, including the northernmost marsupial in the world the opossum! A marsupial is a female animal that usually has a pouch on its abdomen to carry its young. When looking at these marsupials, you may see what you think is a scary, horrible, rabies-infested animal, but it is my mission to prove you wrong! These animals do so much to help our environment, and one of those jobs is eating those sometimes-pesky bugs in our world. Opossums also reduce Lyme disease since they eat many ticks. In fact, opossums eat 95% of the ticks they find, and in the wilderness, there are a lot of ticks!