By: Rae Brown

Bella Voce Choir will continue with its annual tradition of making bags for the homeless on Thursday Dec. 18. In the Choir room, the girls will jam-pack non perishable food, water, toiletries, and clothing into drawstring bags. Bella Voce Vice President Addie Ballenger explained that the girls do the bags to “really get in the Christmas spirit, the spirit of giving rather than receiving.” In previous years, Bella Voce put together 50 bags with 14 girls. This year, with a bigger class of 17 girls, the choir plans to make anywhere from 75 to 100 bags. The Bella Voce girls venture out and gather the supplies for the bags from all over; hotels, stores, teachers, restaurants, dentists, their own houses, families, and friends. Students have the opportunity to help out Bella Voce by donating supplies for the bags to Mrs. Contreras in the Music Room. The deadline for supplies is Monday Dec. 16. After the choir assembles the bags, they distribute the bags amongst themselves and local churches to put in their cars. Then, when one sees a homeless person, a bag is given to the person in need so that they may have food, water, toiletries, and clothes. The girls even give away what they call the “Family Bag” which includes all of the leftover supplies to a homeless family. Ballenger expresses that giving out the bags “ Brings tears to our eyes knowing that we just made someone’s day and potentially gave them the hope in humanity that they needed.”  Director of the choir, Christina Contreras, remarks that the tradition started with a “Class discussion. We were talking about people on the side of the road and how we wished we had something besides money” to give them.