This holiday season, many Santa Fe youth will give back to their community for a variety of reasons. And some Santa Fe youth have found faith to be the motivating factor in their community service.

"In my faith, service is deeply rooted in loving others because that's what Jesus' message was to us," said Marry Farrier, a senior at St. Michael's High School. "With the celebration of his birth, it's especially important to reach out during the season."

Farrier is involved in her school's Lasallian Youth Club, Social Justice Club and the Santa Maria de La Paz Catholic Community.

"During the holiday season a lot of clubs and organizations I am involved in do a lot more community service because it is the season of giving," Farrier said. This year, Farrier and the clubs she is involved in are making stockings for Big Brothers,Big Sisters of Northern New Mexico and collecting food for Christmas baskets.

Farrier in not alone in her faith-motivated service and Santa Fe Preparatory School senior Nick Sanchez, a weekly regular at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, sees much of the same values from his faith.

"One thing that the church teaches us is that stewardship is key with people, especially during the holidays," Sanchez said. "There are these people out there struggling and you should help them out because it is what God and Jesus wanted us to do."

Sanchez has been involved in community service through his church, where there is a giving tree for St. Elizabeth Shelter. He also was very active in his confirmation class.

"When I was in my confirmation class, we would go to nursing homes and take little gifts and play bingo with the elderly people, and I feel like that's the way that I've been brought up as a Catholic is to help people when they are in need," he said.

Angela Merkert, the executive director of Faith at Work Community Outreach, a local 501(c)(3) that provides financial and material assistance to low-income individuals, has seen these youth groups at work. Faith at Work runs collection drives that collect mittens, gloves, electronic games and gift cards.

"At several of the faith communities there are actually youth participating in those drives to gather those goods," Merkert said. "We have involvement through faith communities' youth groups filling toiletry kits and getting other supplies together."

Faith at Work was developed out of the Church of the Holy Faith mission outreach more than 10 years ago and three years ago received its 501(c)(3) status as an autonomous organization.

"It's really about how we live out our faith. We are charged to walk humbly, to share our wealth, to take care of the widows, the orphans, the poor, and out of those charges from scripture, I think that's what brings the group of 20 volunteers together," Merkert said. "Out of our faith we do good work and it's about how we do the work, not any attempt to evangelize our clientele."

Merkert emphasized how the organization was nondenominational and coordinated many different religions to come together in community service projects. Desert Academy sophomore and student council co-president Isaac Green said that it doesn't matter what religion you are to make faith your motivating factor when doing community service.

"My ideas about religion have always been that it isn't about the God figure of religion that's (important), it's the tenets of religion that teach us how to have a more just and helpful life," Green said. He is a member of Temple Beth Shalom's youth group that conducts community service projects including holiday food drives on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

"One of the main tenets of Judaism is tzedakah, which is literally translated as justice and basically in Judaism (this) means giving back to the community," Green said. "Tzedakah is such a big part of Judaism, I think that it has really influenced me and made giving back to the community a big part of my life."

Green continues his service outside of his temple and is the president of the Assistant Dogs of the West Youth Board and a member of the Desert Leo Lions Club — a youth affiliate of the Santa Fe Lions Club that works to address a broad range of international service issues.

Green sums up what religion means to all people of faith this holiday season.

"The one universal thing that religion does is it teaches us how to be better people in the world," Green said. "Religion is an important part of getting people together to contribute to the community."

Alex Wirth is a senior at Santa Fe Prep. You can reach him at alxwirth@gmail.com.