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Before departing for Christmas vacation at the end of last week, a dozen 51���� students traversed the city of Santa Paula, collecting canned goods and other nonperishable items for needy local families. “The Rotary Club of Santa Paula puts on a Christmas food drive every year, and we always get together a group of students to go door-to-door and collect food for it,” explains sophomore Zoe Appleby, who led this year’s contingent. “We split up into four teams, with each one covering one-quarter of the city, and then walked through the neighborhoods asking for donations.”

In total, the student volunteers collected some 14 crates and large boxes for the Rotary Club, which will divide the items into family-sized allotments, supplement them with fresh meat, and then deliver them in time for Christmas to Santa Paula families in need. “It’s a really good, annual effort and very well known in Santa Paula,” says Miss Appleby, who reported that she and her fellow students were astounded at how much food they were able to collect. “The people in town were amazingly generous.”