HIGH SCHOOL GIRL ENJOYS GIFT OF GIVING TO OTHERS.

Byline: Carol Rock Staff Writer

CANYON COUNTRY - Canyon High senior Kelsey Kirkpatrick has her sights set on being a leader in business. ``Maybe not as big as Donald Trump, but successful,'' she said.

As she looks forward to starting college - ``hopefully at Yale'' - it's clear she's got one pillar of business well under construction - philanthropy.

Kirkpatrick, president of the National Honor Society at Canyon as well as the choir president, wanted to do a service project to give back to her community.

This week, her Canyon Country garage was filled with shopping bags, scooters, Barbie and Bratz dolls, stuffed animals and stacks of clothing, all carefully selected and tagged with little blond angels. Because of her efforts - and help from family and friends - 170 Los Angeles-area children will have a brighter holiday.

As she looked over a handwritten list of all the items piled high, her father, Shone Kirkpatrick, beamed.

``This is really neat,'' he said. ``She kind of took this upon herself. It's terrific that all these kids are going to have a brighter Christmas. It's nice to see not only the giving but how people took her up on the opportunity to give to others.''

His daughter contacted the Salvation Army looking for a project. Officials there provided her with names and information from their Angel Giving Tree. Needy children fill out angel ornament tags with their sizes, favorite toys and holiday wishes, which are distributed throughout Southern California.

Armed with the large stack of tags, she set about organizing a massive collection that more than met the needs of all the children. In fact, she ran out of ornaments once word got out on campus.

``I had teachers call me so their classes could adopt a kid or a family, but I was out,'' she said.

``I've been so fortunate growing up,'' she said. ``It's sad the way some kids really don't get anything. My parents helped, especially my mom. She took some of the names to work and people sponsored some of them. I cried when I saw all of the things from my mom's co-workers, how generous they were.''

About 15 of Kirkpatrick's fellow honor society students took names and surprised her with what they brought back. One of her friends adopted 10 children and provided gifts for all of them.

``Some people were more into it than others and some of the gifts they got were pretty expensive,'' she said. ``Some of the things on their lists were Gamecubes and PlayStation 2, and people bought them. If they couldn't afford those, people bought other toys that they thought they would like.''

She said some classrooms took names and pooled their resources to provide gifts.

``People who were sponsored by a classroom got tons of toys, clothes, things like GameBoys. I know our honor society adviser, Mrs. King, wants to do this next year.''

Awaiting the Salvation Army truck on Wednesday, Kirkpatrick was a little sad that she couldn't add a personal touch to the packages.

``I wish we were able to send a note with them, but when it's from Santa, it's kind of anonymous,'' she said.

``I would definitely do this again,'' she added. ``It made me feel really good about myself and gave me the gift of giving.''

Carol Rock, [phone]

carol.rock(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

(color) Kelsey Kirkpatrick of Canyon Country managed to collect toys for 170 needy children that will be distributed by the Salvation Army. She had help from students and teachers at school, and from workers at her mother's work place.

David Crane/Staff Photographer