December 18, 2003

Volunteer of The Week: Carla Lucarotti

Carla Lucarotti is a petite, energetic Spanish teacher with a large cadre of adoring students at Leland High School. Each year around the holidays, her classroom becomes a whirlwind of activity as it serves as the focal point for Leland’s contribution to The Family Giving Tree. Lucarotti originally got involved with The Family Giving Tree as a project for Leland’s Key Club back in 1993.

“We just had one class participate and that year we donated 93 gifts. The next year we had 125. By the year 2000 we had opened the donations up to the whole school and we had 1,000 gifts,” says Lucarotti.

The events of Sept. 11, 2001 meant that the gifts could not be wrapped and they had to be kept in a cage. “That was really tough,” says Lucarotti. Last year, Leland was the seventh largest contributor to the Program.

This year, Leland’s contribution is an all-time high of 1,350 gifts.

The Family Giving Tree is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the year-round needs of underprivileged children in Northern California. The Holiday Program gathers information from 180 local social service agencies that supply the names and wishes of the children they serve year round. Last year, the program served 50,000 children.

Each year, the students and faculty are invited into Lucarotti’s classroom to choose a gift card meant for a particular child. This card tells the name, age, and item desired by the child. “After opening the doors to my room this year, the cards were all gone in two days. Some people came back wanting more!”

Some families really got into the spirit of giving. Rebecca Pele and her family saw that a 9-year-old boy wanted a hockey stick and puck. Not only will the boy get what he wanted on Christmas day, but he will also be the talk of the neighborhood when he sees a second hockey stick included in his gift that was signed by all of the Sharks players.

“Some people really get involved,” says Lucarotti. “The Timpe family donated 38 gifts and the Lippold family donated 25 gifts, even though they no longer have a student at Leland. I think the families get as much out of giving as the kids do who receive these gifts.”

Tiffany Ryan, Lucarotti’s teacher’s assistant, says she is a little tired after wrapping gifts for over a week. “But I’m a little sad that it’s over,” she says. “I’ll be back next year to help when I’m at college. To see Mrs. Lucarotti, she’s my favorite teacher.”

- By Julie Davis Berry