With the holiday season approaching, the Ambassadors Club and class are continuing their MV Cares program and delivering over 60 care baskets to MVHS families in need.

Various community members, clubs, families, teachers, and sports teams are working together to give more than triple the holiday baskets than in previous years.

“The goal is to show that Mountain View is a community, we look out for each other and every single person in our community deserves to have their family’s needs met,” Spanish teacher and Ambassadors advisor Lauren Camarillo said.

Although MV Cares has been making holiday baskets for a couple of years now, some planning of the program has had to adapt to distance learning when it came to finding families as well as collecting donations.

“This year we got some help from teachers, administrators, and counselors to identify some families that are having some difficult financial times or difficult housing situations that we can support in some way,” Camarillo said.

Families sign up or are recommended by teachers and can fill out a list of things they might need, which Ambassadors and other volunteers are forming into Amazon lists that will be delivered to families around the holidays.

“We try to help fulfill basic needs which could be a cause of worry or stress if they were not fulfilled. I think if we can eliminate the smaller stresses by providing basic needs we are bringing a little happiness to a family,” Camarillo said.

With the success of the program so far, Camarillo says the long-term goal of the program is to create a non-profit organization where people can consistently donate to the community.

“We are providing things but also a sense of well being and safety that [these families] don’t have to worry about purchasing some basic [necessities],” Camarillo said.