Spreading Cheer

Campus community generosity fuels toy drive

Members of the campus community are helping hundreds of local families in need this holiday season through the 21st annual SUNY Oswego Toy Drive.

Trees and wreathes for the drive can be found in the Campus Center, Culkin Hall, Hewitt Union, Laker Hall, Mahar Hall, the Parking Office, Penfield Library, Rich Hall and Sheldon Hall on campus.

Participants select a paper ornament with a child’s name, gender and age, and leave an unwrapped toy in an adjacent toy drive box. People can also make out checks to “SUNY Oswego Toy Drive” and deliver them to Casey Walpole in the Registrar’s Office, Room 301 of Culkin Hall. Final toy pickup will be Friday, Dec. 19.

A large number of faculty and staff members, coordinated by Marion Green of Penfield Library, spearhead the effort. But Green is also impressed with the work students put into the toy drive.

“The students are very generous in their donations to the toy drive, and we are very grateful for their support,” Green noted. Usually, the drive provides one and a half full truckloads delivered to the Oswego County Department of Social Services, which identifies local children in need.

College students in the Oswego Technology Education Association are helping with the drive by making wooden tops for children. OTEA has helped with the drive since 2001. Adviser Tom Kubicki of Oswego’s technology education faculty said the number of toys made has increased every year. 

“In the last eight years we have increased our output from 40 the first to 115 last year and intend to make more than 100 again this year,” Kubicki said.

He started this endeavor in his first year as the adviser for OTEA and was joined by co-adviser Dan Tryon three years ago. “OTEA is a co-curricular organization that I feel has a strong obligation to reach out and connect with the community to serve as a model when they are in their professional lives,” Kubicki explained.

More than 40 toys were collected as part of a promotion at Laker men’s and women’s basketball games on Saturday, Dec. 6, where community members who brought toys for the drive received free admission.

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PHOTO CAPTION: Great sports——Student-Athlete Mentors decorate a tree in Laker Hall, one of many dropoff points for the annual SUNY Oswego Toy Drive. From left are soccer player Michael Roorda, a senior finance major; basketball player Rachel Kohrs, a junior wellness management major; and basketball player Kyle Reuter, a senior communication studies major. The college’s toy drive will run through Dec. 19.

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(Posted: Dec 10, 2008)