YAAC has holiday worries all wrapped up

Written by Phil Cerroni

By Jess Paniszczyn

Have the midnight specials, endless checkout lines and parking madness drained your Christmas spirit? By the time your shopping is done, do you fear your name will be remembered along with the Grinch and Ebenezer Scrooge’s? Is the mere prospect of wrapping all those gifts enough to drive you to elficide? Well, fear no longer. The Young Adult Action Council (YAAC) has a seasonal solution for you.

As in years past, the YAAC provided holiday gift wrapping services through the Irving Public Library’s All Wrapped Up program. Weary shoppers were welcomed to sit back, relax, sip hot chocolate and watch holiday movies while energetic teens wrapped up to 10 of their most precious Christmas gifts in colorful holiday paper on Dec. 22.

“This is a community service initiative by the YAAC at the Central Library, which is made up of Irving high schoolers,” Kristin Trevino Senior Library Assistant said. “The YAAC helps us design our programs for the teens by giving us input. They came up with the idea of wrapping presents for the community about three years ago and it has grown every year since.

“We wrap gifts until our supplies run out or our volunteers run out. While people wait, there are Christmas movies playing and refreshments available. People are very appreciative of this service. They say not having to wrap gifts relieves a lot of the holiday stress, especially the dads.”

Among the holiday wrappers was Estefany Lazo (17), a student at MacArthur High School.

“I like to help people, and I like to see their faces when they see their presents all wrapped up,” Estefany said. “When I’m wrapping the presents, I like to think that it is for someone, and when they unwrap it, they will be happy.”