INDIANAPOLIS — Hundreds of local students have already done some holiday shopping, but they won’t be taking the gifts home. They’ll be giving them to local families and kids in need.

“It’s just about giving out to other people and helping other kids when they need it,” Zariah Henry, a 13-year-old in the DREAM Alive Program.

On Thursday she joined dozens of middleschoolers at Meijer on Keystone Ave., who participated in the non-profits 20^th annual service project.

“What we’re doing this time is our students are on the other end of that. They are giving gifts and providing a Christmas for families in need,” said the program’s Vice President Stephen Smith.

The students were teamed up with volunteers, given a wishlist from the kid they were shopping for, and a budget of $100 each.

“Kids have been doing a doing a budgeting workshop through Regions” explained Smith. “So, a lot of them it’s a light bulb moment for them. They get a chance to see what their parents go through, and they expressed a lot of gratitude.”

WRTV

Dream Alive works to break the cycle of poverty by helping youth in Indianapolis discover career paths and mentoring them.

The program has consistently been able to serve more kids with the help of the city’s Elevation Grant.

This year they were able to bring out 200 students from across the city to shop for more than 100 kids in need.

“I think we can form a connection with them and one day they might be inspired by what we’re doing and hope to do it themselves when they’re older,” said 15-year-old Melissa Mercier, who’s been in the program for the last three years.

The dream alive scholars will get a chance to wrap the gifts that they got up and give them to kids they shopped for at the program’s DREAM Christmas celebration on December 4th at Gainbridge fieldhouse.

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