Toy
drive brightens up the holiday season for
children
By Yoshinori Okada
On-line Forty-Niner
The Cal State Long Beach community is encouraging
people on and off campus to donate toys
for needy children in surrounding communities
in their fifth annual Cherishing Children
Toy Drive.
Half of the donated toys will be given to
unfortunate children at a holiday party
scheduled on Dec. 11 at the Pointe in The
Pyramid.
The rest will be donated to the American
Red Cross and the Long Beach Fire Department,
from which the toys are distributed to a
wide variety of children in the Long Beach
and immediate Orange County area, said Robert
Rodgers, a multimedia technician at CSULB
who originally came up with the idea.
“Through this toy drive, we show the caring
nature of the CSULB family and help to provide
a happy holiday for those less fortunate
than ourselves,” Rodgers said.
The drive dates back five years when Rodgers,
one of the current organizers, noticed a
number of individual on-campus toy drives
that were being donated to the same people,
Rodgers said.
Since then, he has made an effort to unify
those drives to a single one with back-up
from his colleague Rodger Rhoades, Associated
Students Inc., and with grants from Staff
Council, Academic Senate and the President’s
Office, Rodgers said.
During the toy drive, which officially began
Nov. 4, will continue through Dec. 13, people
can bring new, unwrapped toys for children
up to 18-years-old to the A.S.I. office,
said Gina Garcia, an A.S.I. administrator.
Collection boxes for the toys have recently
been placed throughout the campus, such
as inside the University Bookstore, The
Nugget and department buildings, Garcia
said.
The organizers have planned a variety of
events in an attempt to further toy donations.
Besides encouraging the competition between
campus organizations launched last year,
the organizers are planning three 49er sporting
events at The Pyramid, where people can
get free admission by bringing toys.
Women’s basketball and volleyball games
starting at 1 and 7:30 p.m., respectively,
on Nov. 23 and men’s basketball game on
Dec. 2 are scheduled, Garcia said.
On top of that, KJAZZ has newly joined the
drive this year. The station will promote
the listeners to bring the toys to any participating
caravan clubs in its 7th Annual Holiday
Latin Jazz Club Caravan on Dec. 5, according
to the Web site.
Through all these efforts, the toy donation
from the members of campus as well as communities
has steadily increased year by year, Garcia
said.
“I think it gets better and better for the
students, and faculty and staff have always
given a lot of toys,” Garcia said. “Last
year, we got over 1,000 toys. So we are
hoping to get 2,000 toys, maybe double this
year. There are always kids that want toys,
so you’ll always have someone to give it
to.”
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