MIDDLESEX TWP — A happy Christmas is in store for 97 students and their families in the Mars School District.

Anna Saker, director of pupil services, coordinates a Holiday Drive in which businesses, churches, organizations and families donate gifts anonymously for students in 48 families.

Saker said she looks at the list of students getting free or reduced-cost lunches and talks to the guidance counselors in each building to get a list of students whose families may need help at Christmas.

She then contacts the parents in each family and asks if they could use help in providing presents to place under the tree.

The parents provide a wish list for each family member to Saker.

A list of donors who have participated in the Holiday Drive since its inception in 2008 are contacted by Saker as are new organizations and families looking to help out.

The donors then shop for the gifts and takes them to the office of pupil services. Saker bagged the gifts for each family and distributed them last week.

“They not only buy what is on the wish lists, but provide a variety of gift cards, too,” Saker said. “We are very fortunate in our area to have such generous donors.”

She said in addition to the toys, clothes, games and other items it collected, the Dutilh United Methodist Church also brought a laundry basket filled with foods the needy families may not normally buy such as cakes, cookies and other goodies.

“Another group did an arrangement for their families that had gift cards hanging on it,” Saker said. “Every family is very well taken care of.”

The Rev. Jim Gascoine, associate pastor at Dutilh United Methodist, said the church has been participating in the Holiday Drive at Mars since it started. This year, the church helped 15 to 18 residents in the district.

He said tags containing individual wish lists are hung on a Christmas tree in the sanctuary, and church members pluck the tags from the tree and shop for the items.

“One of the things our church focuses on is that we must be active in the community,” Gascoine said. “We don’t exist just within these four walls.”

He said the church also donates Thanksgiving baskets to the district and plans to start donating baskets with Easter foods in 2016. He said the Mars and Cranberry Township branches of the church also donate to the Victims Outreach Intervention Center, the Seneca Valley School District and other organizations.

“One of the reasons it works is that we partner with the school districts,” Gascoine said. “We form strategic partnerships and alliances with people in the community so we can do better and more efficient work.”

My School Preschool, one of two preschools operated by Dutilh United Methodist, has donated to the Holiday Drive for five years.

Jill Ceasar, director of the preschool, also uses tags on a Christmas tree to direct families to donate for the program. She said 50 gifts were provided this year.

“It teaches kids to appreciate what they have,” Ceasar said of the children who attend her school. “The small things they are used to getting every day, like socks, hats and gloves, are special to these kids.”

She said the program must be working because one boy emptied his piggy bank and asked her to donate the money to the school’s scholarship program.

“They learn there are kids around them who don’t have as much as they have,” Ceasar said.

Saker said the Holiday Drive serves a purpose in the district other than just providing a better Christmas for needy families.

“We try to provide our students with all the support they need to remove obstacles and allow them to access a great education,” she said.