Some University students are helping to create their own "Toy Story" this holiday season. Collection boxes were scattered around Grounds for the past two weeks to collect toys for disadvantaged children.
Sponsored by the University Guide Service and Delta Sigma Theta sorority, the toy drive ended yesterday and University students are preparing to distribute the collected toys to children tomorrow.
According to Jennifer Wade, Delta Sigma Theta Service Committee chairwoman and third-year Engineering student, the drive was successful.
"We got a lot of stuffed animals and were very pleased with the results," Wade said.
The drive originally was planned for the week prior to Thanksgiving Break, but was extended.
"We wanted everything before Thanksgiving, but a lot [of people] said they'd bring things back from home," Wade said.
Evidently it worked.
"One girl donated over 40 stuffed animals from home -- [we've] gotten bags and bags of them," said Jodi Slater, third-year College student and chairperson of the University Guide Service Community Outreach Committee.
The drive is a community service project for both organizations, and all of the stuffed animals collected will be donated to Tri-Area Foster Families.
The organization, serving the departments of social services in Charlottesville, as well as Albemarle and Greene Counties, "provides custody for children whose parents can't provide for them for various reasons, [such as] substance abuse or incarceration," said Amy Nash, who works for the Tri-Area Foster Families social services department.
Until the children are able to get permanent, stable homes, they must live in temporary foster homes, Nash said.
She said donating stuffed animals to children when they are first placed in foster homes is crucial.
"Children have to have something snuggly for comfort," she added. They've endured "lots of losses, and every time [they] need comforting, it can comfort them."
In light of the festive time of year, the stuffed animals will be given out to foster children at the Tri-Area Foster Families' annual holiday party tomorrow at St. Mark's Lutheran Church in Charlottesville.
Nash said the party will be "an opportunity to recognize foster parents and to cherish the holiday cheer with both children and their foster parents."
The party is equally beneficial to the foster parents, she said.
At the event, foster parents will have the opportunity to meet other foster parents, and receive gifts as well.
The Guide Service also will participate in the festivities, showing the children how to make crafts, playing games like "Pin the Tail on the Reindeer," singing carols and even arranging a visit from Santa Claus, played by a member of the Guide Service, Slater said.
But the benefits of the "mountains of stuffed animals," donated by the Guide Service and Delta Sigma Theta transcend the success of the party, Nash said.
Because of the success of the toy drives, Tri-Area Foster Families will have enough stuffed animals to ensure that all children receive gifts and that all new foster children "will have something to hold on to," Nash said. Extra toys will be placed in a box labeled "Foster Friends" in Tri-Area's office.
This is the first year both Delta Sigma Theta and the University Guide Service have worked to collect toys for Tri-Area Foster Families -- and members of both student organizations said they are pleased with their work.
This service project "has a wonderful purpose," Slater said. The Guides "help[ed] assist them in keeping camaraderie between the foster families."
"The people [at the University] were very receptive ... so it's definitely something we'd want to continue to do in the future," Wade said.
The Guide Service typically partakes in several community service projects, but much of their work focuses on the University.
"We perform plays for elementary schools, after they've had their Jefferson unit [in history] ... sponsor bingo, and just try to reach out to the community," Slater said.
Wade, however, indicated that Delta Sigma Theta, a sorority that usually focuses its service projects on the elderly, initially had reservations about taking on such a project.
"Food and clothing [drives] go really well, but toys is a little different -- most have sentimental value," she said. "But people brought things back from [their] parents' homes."
More donations to Tri-Area Foster Families always are welcome, Slater said.
Both student organizations are grateful for the support the toy drives have received at the University.
"The people are so grateful -- a small donation to you is something big to someone else, and makes a big difference in the community," Wade said.
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