Purple Sheep Project going strong after 12 years, emphasizing joy of giving

For three-quarters of her life, Gabriela Huff, 16, has made her birthday about giving rather than getting. 

“It’s become a thing,” said Huff, a junior at Mount de Sales Academy in Catonsville. “I don’t want gifts anymore; I just love giving gifts.” 

The Catholic Review first reported on Huff’s Purple Sheep Project – her annual gift drive for children in need occurring near her Feb. 27 birthday – 10 years ago. Huff was then a student at St. Louis School in Clarksville. She and her parents, David and Vanessa, are still active members of St. Louis Parish and have been more recently joined by her younger brother, Juan, 8. 

In the Purple Sheep Project, which Huff started at age 4 and named for a stuffed animal she received as a child, Huff and her friends collect books, stuffed animals and journals. The gifts are put into tote bags and distributed via The Tree House Child Advocacy Center in Montgomery County to children living in foster care. Younger children get the stuffed animals; the journals are a more recent part of the project and are for the older children. 

The simple premise of the Purple Sheep Project – making her birthday, including the presents, about others rather than herself – makes perfect sense to Huff’s longtime friend and fellow Purple Sheep Project participant Zoë Remick. 

“Her whole family has a beautiful simplicity to their lives,” Remick said. “It’s just who she is.” 

Remick, a student at River Hill High School in Clarksville and fellow parishioner at St. Louis, said the Huffs were one of the first families her family met when they moved to Maryland. Her father was David Huff’s confirmation sponsor when the latter converted to Catholicism. 

“It has been really cool to see a family so willing to put aside their personal preferences to help other people,” Remick said. “It’s kind of just a show of character for how Catholics should live.” 

Huff is for sure focused on character development – at Mount de Sales, she plays field hockey, is vice president on the student council, participates in Academy Ambassadors and is active in mock trial, among other clubs and activities. 

The Purple Sheep Project recently expanded when 20 students from Mount de Sales assembled Purple Sheep Bags Feb. 19 at the school. Every winter, the school collaborates with an outside organization to collect donations for those in need.  

The service project challenges students to be generous without receiving anything in return, according to Jessica Hechter, a Spanish teacher who serves as service coordinator.  

“By partnering with Tree House Advocacy Center via the Purple Sheep Project, this year’s service project encourages students to consider their own childhood, their own family and their own possessions and thus challenges students to think of children who may not have had the same childhood, the same security or the same possessions,” she said. 

Huff noted that she has never met the children who receive the gifts.  

“I just know I’m blessing all those kids even if I don’t know them,” she said. “I’m sad about kids who are going into tough situations.” 

Huff hopes to bring the Purple Sheep Project to whichever college she eventually attends. She is looking at the University of Maryland, Penn State, Clemson, Purdue and others. She wants to study finance. 

In the meantime, the enrichment opportunities offered by Mount de Sales are more than sufficient, she said. 

“They present so many opportunities to deepen your faith,” Huff said, adding that the Dominican sisters who serve as teachers at Mount de Sales are key examples. 

“The faith of the sisters deepened my own faith,” she said, singling out Dominican Sister Albertine Cevallos, her physics teacher, for the way she opens every class with an important question. 

“Ladies, who are you?” 

The answer: “I am a beloved daughter of the Father.”  

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