Holiday Gift Drive

Most of us were fortunate enough to have celebrated the past Thanksgiving Holiday with some friends and loved ones. Some are even looking forward to the Christmas Holidays. Many have a lot to be thankful for. Unfortunately, this isn’t the same for everyone. As the season of giving approaches, the UB community would like for students and staff alike to donate gifts to children who are not as fortunate.
As mentioned by Edina Oestreicher, whom many know as the director of student programming, this Holiday Season there will be a Gift Drive. The project is for the Salvation Army’s “Angel Tree.” The wonderful staff and students at UB have donated gifts to the program for the past eight years. It is of great hope that the season of giving would be contagious enough so that the UB community could meet the goal of buying gifts for sixty children. Actually, we should surpass that goal!
To donate a gift, a student or staff would have to choose an “Angel Tag” from the Christmas tree which should be up in the Student Center by Friday, December 3, 2004. The tag will have a specific child’s name on it with a “wish list.” In a sense, once you have the name and the wish list, you’re now Santa Claus to that child. Your next step would be to purchase an item or items and bring it unwrapped to room 116 in the Student Center by Wednesday, December 15, 2004. Mrs. Oestreicher would then take the gifts to the Salvation Army’s office in Bridgeport, where the staff would distribute them to the children.
The Holidays are for more than just receiving. They’re for giving also. Your gift may be the one to brighten up an underprivileged child’s New Year. Let’s not be selfish and let’s do our part to help to put a smile on these children’s faces for the Holidays. So gather up your friends, be merry, and start pulling those tags from the tree. We can and we should make the Holidays memorable for these wonderful children whom are anxiously waiting for Santa to come true on his promise.