[media-credit name=”Aimee Smith” align=”alignright” width=”200″][/media-credit]

Recently, the Shepherd Union Building was given a dash of holiday spirit when its mezzanine bridge on the third floor was decorated with Christmas trees. These trees don’t serve as mere decoration, however.

Thirty four-foot trees were purchased by the Weber State University Community Involvement Center for decoration. WSU clubs, organizations and offices were invited to compete against each other to create the best looking tree. Groups decorated their trees all day on Friday in hopes of winning the prize of a free breakfast for their entire organization.

“The Community Involvement Center will be purchasing the breakfast, and the winners will be announced on Wednesday,” said Mike Moon, assistant director to the CIC.

So there is no bias when deciding the winner of the competition, a panel of students and faculty who are not involved with any of the groups will decide the winner of the contest.

To capture the essence of their club, the Skills USA club members decorated their tree with Hot Wheels cars, seeing as how they specialize in automotive competitions throughout the year.

“We only got the e-mail at the last minute, so we had to hurry with our decorations,” said Nina Hunter, a WSU student and member of Skills USA.

Having clubs and organizations decorate trees was an opportunity for smaller groups on campus to promote their organization and give back to the campus and community.

“Some of my friends didn’t even know this (Skills USA) existed,”Hunter said.

Not all the trees were decorated with a theme directly related to their organization, however. The Testing Center had WSU colors in the ornaments and garlands adorning its tree. The trees were four feet tall, so participants didn’t have to worry about bringing ladders and running the risk of falling to get the tree topper on.

The Community Involvement Center is also hosting the Angel Tree donations for this year. Families were picked by the Salvation Army to be involved with the program. With Angel Tree, lower-income families can have their children ask for gifts that the family cannot afford, and other people can donate those specific gifts. The Angel Tree is up on the main floor of the Shepherd Union Building.

“We’re hoping to get all the Angels taken care of,” Moon said of the many requests for children.

The trees will be given to the Women’s Center to donate to the Sub for Santa program later in December. If students are interested in helping with Angel Tree or Sub for Santa, they can contact the Community Involvement Center at 801-626-7737.

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