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by BRITTANY PENLAND
News Reporter
As snowflakes begin to fall in Boone, the holiday season is quickly approaching and an on-campus toy drive has been organized to benefit children in Watauga County.
Boone
Optimist Club’s Santa’s Toy Box project is teaming up with Appalachian
State University Health Promotion for Faculty and Staff to sponsor the
drive until Dec. 5 to aid underprivileged families in the area. The
drive began Nov. 10.
“With the economy
the way it is, lots of families are finding it harder to buy toys for
their children this Christmas, and we are here to help,” Co-chair of
Boone Optimist Club’s Santa’s Toy Box project Gene Swift said.
On Appalachian’s campus there are seven drop-off locations for faculty and students to take toy donations.
“It’s about putting a smile on a child’s face,” Health Promotions Program Coordinator Sherri L. Wilson said.
Donations
to the organization should target children ages six months to 15 years,
junior recreation management major and on-campus toy drive organizer,
Alison M. Nobrega, said.
Toy contributions to Santa’s Toy Box should be unwrapped, new items.
Each child will receive books and three to four new toys valued at about $50 to $60, Swift said.
Other
donation sites in the community include the Southern States Subaru of
Boone, First Citizens Bank and the High Country Press and Charter.
The on-campus toy drive is promoted through each department at Appalachian, Nobrega said.
“We just
check in weekly with each department to see if we need to pick up the
toys and then we will be delivering the toys to Santa’s Toy Box,”
Nobrega said. “Being our first year, we are just grateful for any
[donations].”
The goal for this year’s drive is to collect 4,000 toys for the children.
Last year, Swift said the organization provided 818 children with toys and plans this year to help an estimated 850 to 900.
“I was
thinking when I was a kid, what was it about Christmas that really
makes it Christmas, and to me it is about giving. You never know whose
life you’ll touch, but you know that you will touch somebody’s life,”
Wilson said. “You don’t know what kind of impact it is going to have on
others.”
There will be a shopping spree for toy recipient families Dec. 11 where the gifts will be picked up for children, Nobrega said.
Santa’s
Toy Box originally began at the Deerfield United Methodist Church in
Boone and celebrates its 22nd toy drive in Boone, Swift said.
Swift has been part of the organization for the past 19 years.
This is
the first year health promotions has been involved with Santa’s Toy
Box, but Wilson said it is something they plan to pursue in the future.
“Just
try and think of these kids that don’t have anything and just how a toy
can brighten their day or make their Christmas or Hanukkah,” Nobrega
said.
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