On Dec. 11, Catherine Edwards, vice president of communications for The Health Trust, enlisted her son's second-grade class and another class in making greeting cards in the shape of a reindeer head or an angel. The cards will be delivered Christmas day to about 60 of The Health Trust's more isolated clients.

"Some of our clients have no families to be with for the holidays," Edwards said. "These cards will make the season more real for them. Also, making these cards makes the experience of giving more real for the kids."

Helping out the community in some capacity is nothing new to Booksin Elementary students, and Nancy Nielsen's second-grade class in particular.

"Most classes are involved in some community service," she said.

Edwards said that after the cards are delivered on Dec. 25, her son Jeremy, 7, will help distribute meals the next day to ask how well the cards were received.

"It's a lot of fun," Jeremy said of his experience delivering the meals.

One of Jeremy's classmates, Allison Torrance, 7, made a reindeer card: a brown, potato-shaped head decorated with white antlers, a pair of large eyes and a red puffy nose, with a red-and-white striped candy cane in the reindeer's mouth. The reindeer cards opened from under the chin, and students had their choice of writing "Happy Holidays," "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Hanukkah," plus any other short message.

"I think I will write 'Happy Holidays,' " Torrance said. She didn't know what else she'd write.

But 7-year-old Michael D'Antonio said he wanted to write, "I hope you love the food." Michael's reindeer apparently didn't care for its food—Michael chose to glue the candy cane to the reindeer's head.

The Health Trust Meals On Wheels serves about 300 clients, about 22 of whom are in the 95125 ZIP code.

"Nutrition and isolation are major health concerns for the elderly," Edwards said. She claims that in the year 2020, about 20 percent of Santa Clara County's population will be age 60 or older.

The Health Trust's mission is "to improve the quality of life for senior citizens or disabled adults in all of Santa Clara County."

According to Edwards, volunteers pick up the meals at O'Connor Hospital daily and deliver them to homes throughout the county.

With the holiday meal some of the clients will get a paper angel whose robe curls at the bottom to allow the card to stand. The angels required coloring, glitter glue and more dexterous skills with scissors to cut out, so many students chose to go with making a reindeer head.

Some hadn't thought to give their angels or reindeers a name. Quansi Pate, 7, decided to name his Kevin for no particular reason. Others contemplated naming their red-nosed reindeers one famous name, but at the time they didn't know how to spell Rudolph.

For more information about The Health Trust, 2085 Hamilton Ave., Suite 150, call 408.559.9385 or visit www.healthtrust.org.