T-L Photo/GAGE VOTA Campaign organizer and Shadyside Village Councilwoman Melanie Haswell continues her mother’s legacy of providing to village children in need.

SHADYSIDE — For the 34th year, the Shadyside Sharing Tree project has provided sharing holiday cheer for children in need within the Shadyside School District.

Campaign organizer and Shadyside Village Councilwoman Melanie Haswell said that her mother Bette Anne Ponzo started the initiative because she wanted to provide for children whose parents weren’t able to afford Christmas gifts for them.

Haswell said that once her mother died she decided to take over the program.

“There’s always a story that I tell that’s why I continued after my mom passed away. She passed away suddenly in March, and a child that I taught when I taught first grade at Shadyside at the time said that his mom said that because my mom passed away they won’t have a Christmas anymore,” Haswell said.”Unfortunately, for some people this is what they use for Christmas. Some people are worse off than others. We know how the economy is and know how jobs are. So it was just something that I just like doing.”

She added she believes that everybody should have a nice Christmas regardless of their economic status.

“My mom was like, over the top with Christmas, which is how I am now with my grandkids, but that’s why I just couldn’t see kids not getting things for Christmas,” Haswell said. “I mean, there’s obviously religious reasons, but also kids love receiving the toys from Santa Claus.”

Each year, Haswell passes letters out to all elementary and middle school kids at the end of October. For the high school students, she contacts the teachers because she’s noticed that high school students tend to not pass those letters along to their parents.

“I have teachers give me some names of kids that might be in need and then they contact the parents. There’s about a two week spread when I have all of the letters come in, and then I put it out on social media or wherever I can to spread the word,” Haswell said. “What they do is the kids write down information about their clothes sizes and toys that they want.”

Haswell added that her daughter-in-law Nikki Butts is a big help each year. Butts is a third grade teacher at Leona Middle School who helps collect the returned letters that include the students’ information.

Once the papers are gathered, Haswell, Butts and volunteer Fray Sobray make over 100 stars that display the items the children asked for. Once the stars are completed, Haswell distributes the stars to anyone who would like to donate to the cause.

“There were 124 students this year, which has been the most we’ve ever had,” Haswell said.

Once the gifts are purchased, the families go to Haswell’s home and pick up the gifts so her home doesn’t become overfilled with gifts.

Haswell said that she would not be able to purchase the gifts without the incredible amount of donations that she receives from residents. She added that the things the high-school-age kids like are more expensive like Nike, American Eagle, and video games — things she wouldn’t be able to purchase without the overwhelming amount of donations the program receives throughout the entire year.

“Anyone wanting to donate can call me or text me at 740-391-5015, and that can be any time, because I go through a special banking account that I can just put the money in throughout the year. It’s the specific Shadyside Sharing Tree banking account,” Haswell said. “I typically start in October and then it ends by the beginning of December. So it’s only a short period, but a lot can be done in a short period of time.”