Long ago, Angelo Andres returned to his alma mater to teach social studies. And a major component that he's always preached is social responsibility, with application to the island way of life.

"We were covering our lesson on inafa'maolek, and the whole concept is the whole spirit of giving and helping one another out," Andres told KUAM News. More than 1,000 articles of clothing, shoes and supplies were collected in JFK's Project Re-Gift, almost entirely from students, with contributions from faculty and admin staff.

Participants in JFK's student body could select as many as three items or themselves, or to be re-gifted as holiday presents. It's our highest virtue put into practice.

Student volunteers said, "Re-Gift has been going on for awhile, but this is the first time after COVID that we' done it again so this regifting practices the Chamorro spirit of inafa mao'lek which is helping other people without bad feelings, no greed, no jealousy."

JFK librarian Francis Pilares explained, "We did this two years ago in 2022 and [Andres] asked me, 'Hey, can we use the library?' I said, you know the library is a multifunction place not just for reading and studying and hanging out, but we also wanted to use it for community service."

More than just classwork, JFK puts into practice the notion that being genuine about supporting one another is the island way.

Project Re-Gift continues at JFK today, and Andres is more than happy to share with other fellow educators how to implement the initiative in other schools, too.