Mooney students' Christmas trees are changing lives

YOUNGSTOWN

Two Cardinal Mooney students who heard a story about a child growing up without a Christmas tree wanted to do their part to make sure others wouldn’t suffer the same fate – and the results surprised even them.

Nicolina and Angelina Aiad-Toss partnered with the Martin P. Joyce Juvenile Justice Center, and now 20 families who otherwise would not have had Christmas trees will be able to celebrate Christmas around one.

After meeting a couple who thanked them for a tree, Nicolina, 15, struggled to come up with words to describe the feeling.

“It’s amazing how a tree can make someone’s life change,” Angelina, 17, said.

For Angela Harris and Auma Campbell, life-changing isn’t an overstatement.

“It was like I just won the lottery,” Harris said about hearing she would receive a tree. “It was like Christmas morning.”

The couple is on the JJC’s family dependency court docket and working to regain custody of their children.

The tree serves as a symbol of her family coming together, Harris said.

“I can look at it as hope,” she said. “It reminds me [the court is] behind me, too ... It’s one thing to be holding on. It’s another to have someone holding on back to you.”

Read more about the project in Saturday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.