Saddleback College Program to Aid Single-Parent Students
The holidays will be a little brighter this year for more than 100 disadvantaged Saddleback College students, thanks to their fellow students.
College students, staff and local businesses have donated money, gifts and food to the college’s adopt-a-family program. But in a first for the college, the food baskets and toys will go predominately to single-parent students who also work.
Traci Asare of Mission Viejo said the adopt-a-family program will make her holidays a lot nicer. The single mother has struggled to make ends meet, working and going to school full time while caring for her 3-year-old daughter.
“It means a lot and I’m grateful,” Asare, 29, said of the program. “That people want to help you is more than a gift.”
The holiday gifts will be distributed Saturday afternoon at Saddleback, where school officials expect to pass out toys to more than 150 children.
The students are part of the college’s Extended Opportunity Program and Services and its Cooperative Agencies Resources for Education program, both of which help low-income, educationally disadvantaged and minority students achieve a college education.
For more information on the program, call (714) 582-4530.
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