Over the next two weeks Zhou and other midshipmen will purchase the items on the lists for children in need, who will receive the presents through The Salvation Army.

The Giving Tree campaign at the academy is organized by the 6th Company with support from the Midshipman Action Group.The campaign is nowin its 27th year.

The academy’s tree is part of the overall Salvation Army’s Angel Tree program. The Salvation Army of Annapolis serves Anne Arundel County south of Glen Burnie, and this year will provide gifts for1,010 children.

The academy is the largest single contributor of gifts, according to Salvation Army commanding officer Lt. Laurie Ferraez.

“It is because people in the community ... so many children will be blessed this year,”

Ferraez said.

The midshipmen, staff and faculty who take an angel card from the tree have until Dec. 11 to place their unwrapped gifts under the evergreen. The Salvation Army will distribute the gifts Dec. 19.

Zhou, who is chief of staff for the Midshipman Action Group, said she works with her squad to purchase presents. Her squad adopts a child, and they all go out together to the store and otherwise work together to make the gifts extra special.

It makes the experience more personal, and also helps unite the squad, which is composed of about 10 people.

“Instead of just doing one or two things off of here, we really go extra,” she said.

It was bare beneath the tree on Tuesday, but by Dec. 11 the Christmas tree will be surrounded, said Midshipman 1st Class Taygan Grundy, a member of the 6th Company who helped organize this year’s event. The 22-year-old from California liked Tonka Trucks and anything outdoorsrelated as a child, she said.

Christmas is a big deal in her family, she said. She considers her family fortunate, that they’ve been able to celebrate the holiday well — and together. “There are a lot of families that don’t get that option, so to me, it is incredibly important to make sure that we support the community that allows us to go to school in their capital, that allows us to represent them on a national level,” Grundy said.

“It’s the least we can do to make sure that our nation’s future has a Christmas we got to have when we grew up,” she said.

At Tuesday’s ceremony launching the Giving Tree campaign, Capt. Robert Chadwick, commandant of midshipmen, talked more about the academy’s ties to Annapolis.

“I think we are truly blessed to be parked in the heart of this great city,” Chadwick said. “In my short time here I have seen that the brigade truly does embrace that relationship with Annapolis, and you do that through your generosity.”

The Giving Tree, he said, is a personal way to make a difference in the life of a child. And he lauded the midshipmen for embracing the chance to make a difference.

“As good as those angels look up there, I think they’re going to be scarce pretty soon,” he said. rpacella@capgaznews.com