Sixth-graders Beth Eberts and Andrew Zbihley, both 11, expect to have a happy holiday season this year filled with family, food, gifts and good times.

But that doesn't mean they won't be thinking about others who aren't so fortunate.

Beth and Andrew, along with the rest of their classmates on the Koala team at Moon Area Middle School, are undertaking a project to make sure there will be gifts under the tree for some senior citizens in their community who might not otherwise be able to afford them.

The students spent recent weeks collecting small gift items such as socks, slippers, toiletries, soaps and lotions, candies and treats, puzzle books and ornaments for gift bags and boxes that the students decorated to be distributed to seniors who use the West Hills Food Pantry in Moon.

Beth said her message to the recipients of the students' gifts is this:

"I hope this makes them feel so much happier and I want them to know that there are people out there who want to help you."

That's precisely the type of sentiment that teachers and organizers of holiday service projects are hoping to instill in their students. And it's precisely the kind of result that a successful holiday service project should produce.

"I think that what we want out of this is for our children to acquire a sense of empathy," said Holiday Adair, a professor of psychology at California University of Pennsylvania.

Beth and Andrew aren't alone.

Across the region in these weeks leading up to the holidays, students from a variety of schools are taking on service projects that benefit many of the forgotten segments of society -- the elderly, those who are alone during the holidays, children in the hospital, needy families, those living in homeless shelters and service men and women stationed far from home.

And, many schools are conducting food drives and cash collections for pantries and charities while others are taking the projects a step further by making their efforts personalized to specific groups.

That, said Dr. Adair, makes the projects even more meaningful.

Service projects where students work with or help their peers may be the most effective in teaching children empathy because "the more the similarities, the more they will relate," Dr. Adair said.

Students in the newly formed service club at Woodland Hills' Fairless Elementary in North Braddock will be decorating pillow cases that will be used to deliver gifts to children who will be patients in Children's Hospital over the holidays. As part of the project, classes at the school will watch a video about Children's Hospital.

"We will talk about why the kids are there and how it affects their families," said Rachel Scholze, a fifth-grade teacher at Fairless.

Miss Scholze said what she is trying to instill in students through the service club is that even though they live in an economically depressed area, they can still take make a positive difference in the lives of others.

That's an important concept for students to learn, Dr. Adair said, particularly those of limited economic means. "Kids struggle with this idea that they have no control, that they can't affect their environment. It's good when they see that their actions can affect things positively," she said.

Miss Scholze said one of the main messages of the service club will be for the students "to see they can do things in their school and community that can change things. We talk to them about the concept of 'pay it forward.'?"

At St. Athanasius School in West View, the 78 students in grades K-8 have undertaken a Thanksgiving and a Christmas project to meet help two different groups.

For Thanksgiving, for the past 10 years, the students help to prepare for and serve a Thanksgiving meal that the parish sponsors for people who have nowhere else to go, said principal Gabrielle Yingling.

In preparation, the younger children make construction paper chains with fall colors to decorate the tables. The older children design and color place mats and create favors for the 40 or so people who attend the dinner.

In addition some of the children show up and help to serve the meal, which is held at noon on Thanksgiving Day.

For Christmas, the school students collect gifts to make gift boxes for children and adults living in homeless shelters.

Each year, as part of the project, Miss Yingling invites representatives from the shelters to watch the students work on the gift boxes and to talk to them about the importance of the project.

"One of the gentlemen who coordinates things for the homeless population told the students that sometimes that box is all they [children in the shelters], have and they carry it around with them until the paper wears off," Miss Yingling said.

The students are able to fill about 250 boxes with small gifts, treats and toiletries. This year, Miss Yingling said, even families in the school and parish who are having financial difficulties because of layoffs are still contributing.

And, it appears the need for the project may be greater than ever this year, given recent statistics about homeless shelters being so full in recent weeks that they've had to turn people away.

Miss Yingling said she believes the Christmas project has a profound effect on the students.

"I asked one girl what she thought of the project, and she said, "I will never look into my closet again and say, 'I don't have anything to wear,'?" the principal said. "She has become aware that there are some children that don't even have the basic necessities of life."

Students in Bethel Park also are reaching out to the needy.

For the past 10 years, students at Neil Armstrong Middle School, which houses grades five and six, raise money through school activities and by doing chores at home and in their neighborhoods to shop for holiday gifts for the Angel Emporium sponsored by South Hills Interfaith Ministries.

Teachers get into the fundraising act as well, selling free homework passes and chances to chew gum in class, said Mary Huwe, one of the teachers who helped to found the effort.

The Angel Emporium is a gift shop in which SHIM allows the families who use its food pantry to select gifts for other members of their family.

Last year, Neil Armstrong students raised about $8,000 and are on target to do the same this year. Mrs. Huwe said.

This week and last, the students were taken in groups of four and five to local stores to shop for gifts. Each group was assigned a person of a specific gender and age for whom to shop.

Students Miranda Pikutis, Alaina Dvorsky, Logan Runco, and Joey Primiero, all 11, had $40 to spend to buy gifts for a mother. Among the items they chose were bath lotion and moisturizer, furry socks treated with aloe and a Snuggie blanket.

The group members said they thought about how hard moms work and chose their gifts to provide this mom an opportunity to be pampered.

Another group, including Caroline Colligan and Danielle Guthoerl, both 10, and Nick Kalogeris and Harley Hannan, both 11, were shopping for an elementary school-aged girl.

They chose a "decorate your own piggy bank" kit, gloves, sparkly hair ties and a "Hello Kitty" bingo game.

"She deserves it," said Harley, whose sentence was finished by Nick, with "because she's been through a lot."

Jim Guffey, SHIM's executive director, said the Angel Emporium would not be able to exist were it not for the contributions from the Neil Armstrong students.

"They provide 40 to 50 percent of the gifts. They are a significant portion of my program," Mr. Guffey said.

Ironically, he added, some of the same Neil Armstrong children who participate in the program come from families that will use the Angel Emporium.

"They still bring their dollars in and they still participate, but sadly they will be here doing the shopping when the program starts," he said.

That's not necessarily a bad thing, said Dr. Adair, the psychologist.

"These students have a chance to learn, 'I'm giving as well as getting,'?" she said.

At Pine-Richland High School, students have taken on a very personal project for the holidays and beyond. They are raising money to help beloved physical education teacher and varsity baseball coach Kurt Wolfe and his family in the wake of Mr. Wolfe's diagnosis of colon cancer.

The fundraising, aimed at helping with medical expenses, began with an effort by members of the baseball team who sold T-shirts bearing the message, "Wolfe Pack." Later, a basketball tournament and a dance were held and a dodgeball tournament also is being planned.

"There are -- honestly -- so many fundraisers going on, I can't keep track. So many organizations are involved, student government, National Honor Society, the faculty and staff," said Pine-Richland senior Matt Berezo.

"It's just very personal for us. It makes you want to step out a little further for someone you know and someone you care about."

Mr. Wolfe, in an e-mail, said the support he has received from the school community has been overwhelming. "All this does is motivate me to get better knowing so many people out there are pulling for me," he wrote.

Miss Yingling, St. Athanasius principal, summed up the point of the holiday service projects being performed by students in the area this way:

"These projects get them to go beyond what they normally do. This world needs people who go beyond, and if we don't teach that to them in school, it may be too late."

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