Who Is a Global Citizen? By: Chelsea Pugh Grace Schwedler

A Global Citizen A Global Citizen is a person who is concerned, aware, and cares about humanity and environment on a global level.

Our Global Citizen Marcia Berry lives in Davis, California. She attended Wayne State University majoring in biology. She home schools three of her children, her fourth child is graduating from college soon. Over the holiday season (October through December) Marcia runs The Giving Tree at St. James Church.

The St. Nicholas Giving Tree The Saint Nicholas Giving Tree is a project involving many different charity groups. Parishioners pick a star off the Christmas tree. The star has an item that is needed by a senior citizen in assisted living home, a teen parent, or STEAC (Short Term emergency aid center) STEAC has a program during December called the Holiday Program. Each family enrolled in the program receives a box of food and a gift for each member of the family The members them purchase the items, wrap them and bring them back to the church and place them back under the tree. The items are then sorted by organization to which they will be given. Every year the Giving Tree provides gifts, clothes, house hold items, etc. for those who need them most in our community.

Why… How long have you been involved in the giving tree project? –This is my 7th year coordinating it Why did you take it over? –The person who had been coordinating it asked me to take over. I was pregnant with my 4th child at the time. What’s the most difficult part of running it? –I have to have all the labels that hold the requests organized and counted out to match the number of stars in each group so they will be ready for other people to put together. One thing is deciding what should go on the label and how many of each item are needed. What do you like about it? –I took this on because it was a way to get my children involved in a service project. Many service projects have age requirements so this lets kids of all ages be involved.