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Several Guilford County schools have teamed up with Four Seasons Town Centre to spread the spirit of giving this holiday season.

Four Seasons and the school system announced a formal partnership to help raise awareness and involvement in the schools' character-education initiative. The mall donated more than $4,000 to the school's "Giving Teams" projects.

Each prospective team applied to Four Seasons Town Centre and was selected based on the creativity, community impact, spirit of giving and timing of the proposed project. Each chosen school was given $200 in seed money.

The schools chosen to participate are: The Academy at Smith High School; Aycock Middle School; Brown Summit Middle School; Ferndale Middle School; Grimsley High School; Guilford Middle School; Hairston Middle School; Kiser Middle School; Middle College at Bennett, Northeast Guilford High, Northwest Guilford High, Northeast Middle School, Penn-Griffin School for the Arts; Southeast Middle School and Andrews High School.

Southeast Middle teacher Patricia Swinney said the school's Campus Life Team chose to help Greensboro Urban Ministries by donating a gift card to be used for the organization's office supplies. The team spent some of the seed money on toiletries for Clapp's Nursing Home and gave money to the nonprofit World Vision to purchase livestock for an orphan that would be used for milk and eggs to sustain a family.

Teacher Allison Bryant said Southeast Middle cheerleaders plan to buy materials for hats, gloves, scarves and blankets to hand out at the Greensboro Housing Authority to the homeless. They will also buy items for Clara House, a Greensboro shelter for domestic violence victims and their children, which is operated by the nonprofit Family and Children's Service.

Andrews High teacher Benjamin Medlin, said the $200 seed money allowed the school to buy four Christmas trees to be sent to the military as part of the Trees for Troops program.

"Our goal was simple," Medlin said. "We wanted to provide the holiday spirit to military troops that might not be able to have that tree this year that they have always had. With this money, we were able to provide four trees to the military that would originally not be able to receive one."

David Huesser, senior general manager of Four Seasons, said the Giving Teams Project marks the first step in helping the students put their classroom lessons into action by giving back to the community.

"The Giving Teams give students the opportunity to develop projects that can have a positive impact on the local community," Huesser said.

"The mall is committed to spreading the spirit of giving this year, and with the help of each Giving Team, we're hoping to help thousands of individuals throughout the Triad," Huesser added.

Contact Adria Hairston at 883-4422, Ext. 244 or adria.hairston@news-record.com