Members of Indian Creek Middle School’s Couture Club are learning the true meaning of giving this Christmas, by "adopting" 21 children in a Liberian orphanage.

Advisor Lynne Blanks is a long-time participant in Operation Christmas Child through Samaritan’s Purse, a Christian organization that helps needy people around the world. She has always given her Couture Club members different organizations to help throughout the year, instilling in them not only the knowledge of design but also of helping others.

After Blanks' daughter Jasmine began working with the Rescue Mission Center Orphanage in Liberia recently, teaching the children there education through the arts, Blanks decided that might be a good way for the Couture Club kids to help, and to learn more about sewing, matching and general goodwill in the process.

For the girls at the orphanage, club members made skirts and matching tops and scrunchies for their hair. For the boys they made camouflage shorts. They also made drawstring bags to send the items in.

Along with clothing, they had general toiletries for all the children donated by Blanks’ church, Knox Chapel Missionary Baptist, and a woman associated with the church also donated t-shirts to go with the camouflage shorts the club made for the boys. The drawstring bags can be used to carry the donated toiletries in and the ICMS children each wrote letters and Christmas cards to the children at the orphanage. Although there are over 80 children in the orphanage, the club "adopted" only 21 — six boys and 15 girls. They plan to make gifts for the rest of the children in the spring.

According to Blanks, the club members’ letters were mostly about themselves, and many students asked the Liberian children about what their lives are like in the orphanage.

"The students feel like by doing this project they are actually impacting a life and they really want to get to know the kids they are doing this for," said Blanks. "Just the fact that they can do something for someone unknown is so exciting for them," she continued.

"I have seen a lot of growth in the kids since we began this project (four weeks ago)," said Blanks. "Generally kids this age are kind of self-absorbed. They don’t think beyond what they see and they can’t understand really that there are people out there that do with out the most basic necessities. This helps them see beyond themselves and I have seen a real maturing in them because of it."

To learn more about Operation Christmas Child visit http://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/OCC/.