WORCESTER, Mass. – The College of the Holy Cross community is getting into the spirit of Christmas with generous donations of time and other resources to many charities and other causes.
Among these efforts:
- Sponsored by Human Resources, the Candy Cane tree allows participants in early December to select candy canes from a Christmas tree and buy a gift for a patient at St. Mary’s Health Care Center, The Dalton Nursing Home on Cambridge Street, or for a needy child in the Main South neighborhood of Worcester.
- Organized by Human Resources, the Thanksgiving food drive, which benefits members of the Holy Cross community on medical or family leave, faculty and staff were able to send fruit baskets, food baskets, or floral arrangements to 8 families.
- Money raised in the annual AIDS Compassion & Awareness Charity Banquet in November, sponsored by the Bishop Healy Multicultural Society, will go to AIDS Project Worcester and the Pendulum Project, a non-profit humanitarian organization that helps families and communities care for, support, and protect orphans and vulnerable children in parts of the world that are severely impacted by AIDS. They raised $3,000, and donations are still being made.
"Our mission each year is to draw the campus community's attention to the striking effects of AIDS, both domestically and internationally," explains Ani Nalbandian '09, co-chair of the Bishop Healy Multicultural Society. "But even more, the challenge is to make people realize that the statistics are just references to collective groups of people, with every additional number, there is the story of human suffering." - For the second year in a row, the Class of 2010 Class Council participated in Operation Christmas Child through Samaritan’s Purse, by gathering and shipping gift-filled shoeboxes to needy children across the world. Students, faculty and staff helped and the officers sent 80 shoeboxes filled with stationary, shoes, toys, toiletries, sweets, and games, among other items.
- Toys for Tots donations were collected at the annual Holy Cross Dining Holiday Luncheon on Dec. 6.
- Pax Christi sold holiday greeting cards raising $1,766 to aid the refugees in Darfur. The prices ranged from $1 to $80 with the different monetary denominations used to buy different levels of supplies and protection for Darfurians who are struggling to find food, water, and wood in the midst of the turmoil which they live.
“Pax Christi would like to thank all those who supported us and say we are overwhelmed by the generosity of the HC community,” says Sarah Fontaine ’08, a member of Pax Christi. - The Chaplains’ Office and Alpha Sigma Nu (the Jesuit Honor Society) collaborated in collecting toys at worship services on campus during the first weekend of advent. The toys will be donated to churches in Worcester for distribution to children at Christmas.
- The College Republicans collected supplies (magazines, beef jerky, non-perishables) and monetary donations, then assembled care packages to send to troops stationed in Iraq.
- Year-round, Dining Services donates surplus food to the Central Mass. Shelter for Homeless Veterans, in Worcester. Students involved with Student Programs for Urban Development (SPUD), a community service organization on campus, bring the food to the shelters.
- The Purple Key Society organizes a giving tree every year, to collect Christmas gifts for the children at the Nativity School in Worcester. This year they went with an athletic theme and each boy received a basketball.
“We collected 53 basketballs in two days, due to the overwhelming generosity of the Holy Cross community,” says Heather Martone ’08, co-chair of the Purple Key Society.
Because they reached their goal so soon, the Society decided to raise money so the school could purchase new basketball uniforms for the students. - Since 1987, the Physical Plant/Building Services department donates used furniture from office and residence hall upgrades, and conducts a winter clothing drive among staff, faculty and students to benefit the following Worcester organizations: Henry Lee Willis Community Center, PIP Shelter in Worcester; Central Mass. Housing Alliance; Abby’s House; and Central Mass. Shelter for Homeless Veterans. “Donations continue to grow over the years,” says Jack McCann, assistant director of Physical Plant/Building Services, who says many were coats alone were donated this year. “It’s amazing how much is dropped off.”
- Throughout the year ITS has given computers and networking equipment to the Nativity School of Worcester, Burncoat High School in Worcester, and the Beverly School in Kenya. The have also consulted with the South Worcester Neighborhood Improvement Center free of charge.
