The spirit of holiday giving is a long-standing tradition at the UC Office of the President.

For 25 years, the Office of the General Counsel has been celebrating the season by adopting families who otherwise wouldn't have holiday gifts.

This year the group has adopted five families with members ranging from infants to grandparents. Alameda County's Project Helping Hands selects the families and provides lists of items each member needs along with their ages and sizes. The families the counsel's office adopted this year are asking for items such as shoes, baby clothes and children's toys.

"It's a very heartwarming thing," said Trisha Buresh, a senior legal secretary. "People seem to like it, and they come from other departments to participate. It's not just our office."

OP employees wishing to participate can sign up to provide a gift at the counsel's office on the eighth floor of the Franklin Street building. Gifts must be wrapped and delivered to the office by Dec. 18.

The counsel's office also sponsors the OP pre-Thanksgiving bake sale and raffle, which took in $2,545 this year. The proceeds were donated to First Place for Youth, an organization that provides housing, jobs and in dependent living services to foster youth who are aging out of the social services system.

This year, Health Sciences and Services staff collected food items for the Blue Star Moms, a group that sends care packages to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. OP employees gave enough items to fill 25 boxes to ship overseas, said Andrea Gerstenberger, one of the organizers of the OP collection.

"People were really generous, and the moms are grateful," she said.

Blue Star Moms are part of the national Blue Star Mothers of America, a group founded in World War II to support the troops and returning veterans.

OP employees are also collecting food for the Alameda County Food Bank and toys for the Salvation Army. Look for collection barrels in your building.