Plymouth Spanish teachers Jane Spiteri and Alicia Maturen joined forces with their classes to help out families in need through Latino Family Services.

After collecting clothing items and other necessities as well as toys, the students will delivered these gifts after school at the Latino Family Services building in Detroit.

The teachers have been supporting the organization since 2004 and have found it beneficial and a good experience for everyone involved.

Latino Family Services is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization based in Detroit. Their goal is to help families in the southwestern part of the city, with their main focus on Latino families.

In 2004, LFS sent out 50 letters to schools in the surrounding area asking for support through can drives. P-CEP was one of the only schools to respond. However, instead of doing a can drive, Maturen and Spiteri wanted something the students could get involved in.

"I wanted something I could connect to my students as well," said Maturen.

The result was the opportunity to adopt families. "Adopting a family" involves helping them out at Christmas time by buying clothing and toys the family couldn’t afford otherwise. Families are screened for their level of need and then chosen to participate. Many of the participants are single parent families or families with unemployed or migrant parents.

Each one of Maturen and Spiteri’s class periods has a different family to help provide for. The Spanish teachers’ jobs are to rally their students and bring them together to collect items on the familys’ wish lists.

Gifts on these lists include necessities like clothing, shoes, coats, diapers and toys.

After collecting an abundance of items, the Spanish class students participated in a "wrap day." Spiteri said students always enjoy this day, as it’s a free day for students to wrap all the gifts they’ve donated over the past weeks.

Today after school, Spiteri, Maturen and roughly 100 students and chaperones will be going to meet the families they adopted and deliver presents to them. This is always one of the most rewarding parts of the event.

"The families are such nice people. So grateful," said Spiteri. "It’s humbling."

"There are usually a lot of tears," added Maturen.

Both teachers agree it is fun to watch their own students play soccer and interact with the children of the families they’ve helped out.

After visiting with the families, the classes take a trip to "Los Galanes," a Mexican restaurant with an all-you-can-eat buffet. If there is time, the import/export store and bakery are also visited.

"The kids love it; it’s complete immersion on so many different levels," said Maturen.