Press Release

Naval Academy Announces 21st Annual Giving Tree

NOTE TO EDITORS AND REPORTERS: Please call the Public Affairs Office at 410-293-2292 by 5 p.m., Monday, Nov. 28, if you wish to cover this event.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. . For the 21st consecutive year, the U.S. Naval Academy's annual Giving Tree program will kick off with a lighting ceremony on Tuesday, Nov. 29, at 12:50 p.m. in Bancroft Hall. The Naval Academy's Giving Tree collection will run from Nov. 29 through Dec. 12. This event is not open to the public, however, media are invited.

In conjunction with the Salvation Army, each year midshipmen from the academy's 6th Company decorate a holiday tree with paper angel ornaments provided by the Salvation Army. Six hundred angel ornaments were on the tree last year, and this year the number of angels was increased to 1,000. Each angel ornament states the name, gender, age, and a suggested gift for a local child in need. Naval Academy midshipmen, faculty and staff will have the opportunity to spread holiday cheer to hundreds of children in the greater Annapolis area by selecting an angel on the tree and purchasing gifts for the children represented by the angel ornaments.

"The Giving Tree is such a wonderful event because it provides a Christmas for children who otherwise would not have one," said Boca Raton, Fla. native, Midshipman 1st Class Kristen Tella, this year's Giving Tree coordinator. vThe midshipmen love to participate and look forward to this event every year! I'm just so honored to be able to work with 6th Company for such a great cause."

For more information about the Salvation Army, visit www.salvationarmyusa.org.

USNA

Founded in 1845, the U.S. Naval Academy today is a prestigious four-year service academy that prepares midshipmen morally, mentally and physically to be professional officers in the naval service. More than 4,400 men and women representing every state in the U.S. and several foreign countries make up the student body, known as the Brigade of Midshipmen. Midshipmen learn from military and civilian instructors and participate in intercollegiate varsity sports and extracurricular activities. They also study subjects like small arms, drill, seamanship and navigation, tactics, naval engineering and weapons, leadership, ethics and military law. Upon graduation, midshipmen earn a tax-payer funded Bachelor of Science degree in a choice of 23 different subject majors and go on to serve at least five years of exciting and rewarding service as commissioned officers in the U.S. Navy or U.S. Marine Corps.