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Students From Struggling Families Help Less Fortunate

Tribune photo by JAY NOLAN

Shoshana Segan, 14, and Danny Desdunes, 15, place a freshly wrapped gift on a table at Webb Middle School.

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By MARILYN BROWN

mbrown@tampatrib.com

Published: December 19, 2008

TAMPA - Most of the struggling teenagers don't have a lot themselves, but they know about giving.

"We know how it would feel if we didn't have a Christmas," is how Maria Correa, 15, explains the project she and Kristina Whitaker launched to help those less fortunate.

Correa is typical of the other 38 students in a program at Webb Middle School designed to help them catch up to their peers in high school by August. Her mother makes sandwiches at a local shop. Her dad works in construction. Her family does OK, she says, but, "We are still struggling."

"They come from low, low income," says Marianne Allen, their science teacher who has helped collect money and gifts for three families at the school, including one with 10 children. "They are just very kind kids."

Many are from single-parent homes, some live with relatives or families who have lost their own homes to foreclosure and most know tragedy up close. One recounted the loss of her brother, shot to death earlier this year.

The students collected for the families at the mall, from Webb staff and in their neighborhoods. Javier Rivera, 15, carried a bucket through his neighborhood near Citrus Park.

Rivera said it takes him "45 minutes by bike - by foot, an hour and a half" to get to school if his bike breaks down. His family is "hangin' in there," he says, but he knows others have less than he does: "I just have a feeling."

The students decorated their classroom Thursday, placing their wrapped presents beneath a tiny pink Christmas tree in anticipation of this afternoon, when the families arrive to pick up the gifts and share cookies and drinks.

Reporter Marilyn Brown can be reached at (813) 259-8069.

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