The Office of Leadership & Community Engagement (OLCE) will kick off the 25th annual Holiday Helper Tree event Thursday Nov. 1 at 10 a.m., at Russell Union Commons, 85 Georgia Ave, Statesboro, Ga. 30458. This event encourages students, staff and faculty to pull a tag with the name of a family or individual in need. The tags represent 17 local nonprofit organizations and nearly 700 individuals and families who will each receive a gift from their wish-list this holiday season.

In honor of the Holiday Helper Tree’s 25th anniversary, OLCE is adding gold tags, which represent an act of service that volunteers can do to help a Bulloch County organization. Eileen Smith, founder of this Georgia Southern tradition, will speak and children from Statesboro Head Start will sing holiday carols.

This article appears in Oct 31 – Nov 6, 2018.