The Rocket

Issue date: 11/30/07 Section: Focus

Media Credit: MCT Campus [Click to enlarge]

Since Black Friday and Cyber Monday have passed, holiday shopping is now on the minds of many.

But while sale prices, store flyers and talk of the newest gadgets is circulating through the chilly air, parents with little more than old receipts and gum wrappers in their wallets may not be looking forward to the holiday season as much as others.

In order to help those in need during the Christmas season, many organizations such as Toys for Tots and the Salvation Army strive to financially assist families during the Christmas season.

Laurel Dagnon, the director of programming at the Institute for Community, Service-Learning and Nonprofit Leadership, said the institute has been a part of this Christmas giving since the early '90s by helping the Butler Salvation Army.

Dagnon said while the Public Relations office at Slippery Rock University has helped in the past with the reception at the end of the project, the institute has always been the one running it.

Ian McGinnity, the graduate assistant of special projects of the Institute for Community, Service-Learning and Nonprofit Leadership, said at the end of October the Butler Salvation Army gave the institute the names of 75 children who needed to be "adopted" for the Christmas season, along with their age, sex and wish list.

Dagnon said the Salvation Army compiles a list of families with need, such as single-parent families and children in shelters.

"Mainly (it includes people) who have economics that are just not there," Dagnon said.

While in the past the university has adopted more children-250 and 125 in 2005 and 2006, respectively-Dagnon said she believes the economy is having an effect on the number of children being adopted.

"With the economy being so bad right now, we decided to adopt a lower number (of children) this year," Dagnon said. "People only have an X-amount of dollars to spend."

McGinnity said after receiving this information, it was the job of the institute's graduate assistants and one student aide to take calls from those who called the institute's main line wishing to "adopt" and assign them a child. This process started on Nov. 14 and runs through today.

Continued...

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