Members of the Washington High School National Honor Society stand by one of their donation boxes, from left Andrea Pingol, Michael Dillon, John Dillon, Cody Chalupa and Lindsay Hippen. Photo by Sally Y. Hart

Gifts for children at the University of Iowa Children’s Hospital and Clinics are what Washington High School students are now collecting and will be delivering before Christmas. Six members of the National Honor Society are spear-heading the effort including Lindsay Hippen, Reid Basten, Michael Dillon, John Dillon, Cody Chalupa and Andrea Pingol. Hippen, president of the society, says they’ll get to deliver the items in person to the kids so they can see where they came from.

Basten said it’s important to do this service project, “A lot of the families of the children, all there money is going to medical expenses and stuff, so they may not be able to get their kids the Christmas gifts they want. So this just brightens their day, makes it a little bit better and little bit easier for the families going through this terrible experience.”

They’re collecting gift cards, new clothes of all sizes, toiletry items like travel-size shampoo or lip balm, new CD’s and DVD’s, games, craft supplies and toys. Donations can be dropped off at any of the schools in the Washington School District and they should not be wrapped. The deadline to drop off items is December 13th.