The Hemet Unifi ed School District's SAFE Afterschool Program has not forgotten how they got their start and, in the spirit of the holiday season, are giving back to the community.

According to SAFE (Students Learning in Fun Environments) Director Mark Attebery, the program is only possible because the voters in the community accepted the After School Education and Safety or ASES grant to provide for it.

SAFE is offered at 18 district elementary and middle school campuses from the time school ends to 6 p.m. each night for students whose parents are unable to care for them during normal work hours.

"We always, always remind our kids and parents that they have this fun, safe place to go after school because of the community they live in," Attebery said. "The people decided to let them have it and they need to give back to them."

That general reminder to give back is what sparked the annual "SAFE Gives Back" drive that is currently in its fourth year.

Every site that has a SAFE program has chosen a community outreach project that will benefi t a private or public group that needs assistance. Whatever the school decides to do as their project is decided entirely by the students.

"We don't tell them what to do," Attebery said. "They get to look at their school and their community and see what the needs are and make a decision."

Much to Attebery's surprise, the students seem to recognize the needs of the community clearly.

"This year, we have a lot of projects concerning the veterans," he said. "It's funny, but kids do pick up on what is going on in the world."

Some of the troop and veteran related projects include making cards and care packages for troops overseas.

"Idyllwild School is collecting old phones and using the proceeds to create care boxes to send over to the troops," Attebery said.

Many schools chose to do canned food drives, some for the Community Pantry and some for individual families at the schools that are in need. There are also toy drives and opportunities to adopt a family at many sites.

"We keep the family adoptions anonymous, but obviously there are a lot of families who need some help to create a great Christmas," Attebery said. "Some simply need a Christmas tree. But something as simple as that can really turn their holiday around."

The rest of the projects are mainly made up of outreach to the homeless, such as clothing drives, and collections for the Ramona Humane Society.

At McSweeney Elementary School, students decided to focus on the elderly. Children in the SAFE program are currently knitting lap robes to donate to Eldercare.

Fifth-grader Leondra Rand was excited at the chance to help others.

"I know it is cold at my house, so it is probably cold at the elderly houses too," she said. "It is good for them to have little blankets so they can stay warm in the winter time and feel like somebody cares about them."

For other students it offered the opportunity to further their knitting skills.

"Last year we got to knit scarves and fi ngerless gloves," said fourthgrader Zoeey Gilman. "It's really fun to knit and to make things for other people."

The students are each making their own nine-inch knitted square in their color of choice that will be sewn together with others to create the lap robe.

"This is my fi rst year in the after-school program and I really love it," said fourth-grader Mateo Aguirre. "Knitting is cool because, if you are cold, you can knit something for yourself and you can knit things to give to people."

Attebery said the goal of this program is two-fold.

"We want the kids to understand that the community is the only reason that SAFE exists and we also want to teach them that there are others in need," Attebery said. "We want them to be able to identify the needs in the community. I think it is clear with their choice to aid the veterans and the elderly that the students are seeing what is important."

The next big event for the SAFE program will be the "SAFE Pays it Forward" project in which students in the program will donate shoes to the Green Sneakers organization. Green Sneakers will pay for the shoes and donate them to third world countries. SAFE will take the proceeds and funnel them to the feeder high schools in the district.

For more information on SAFE or for a full list of the "SAFE Gives Back" projects, call 765-5100 ext. 3901.