| NEWS
| December 1, 2005
Student Organizations
Students’ children get gifts
Groups work together, buying presents
to provide to parents attending UTA.
By Elyse
Malanowski
Contributor to The Shorthorn
As the holiday spirit spreads throughout the university, some student-parents
seek help to bring cheer to their children.
The Association of Mexican American Students has decided to take
on this challenge for the second year in a row.
The University Community with Children is sponsoring the program
in which university organizations and departments “adopt”
a student’s child.
The organization then buys the requested items on the wish list
provided by the parent.
Sara Skiles-du Toit, Student Support Services counseling specialist,
said this year there are eight children in the program ranging from
2 to 17 years old and a mix of boys and girls,
Skiles-du Toit said the association is one of two campus organizations
participating in the event, adopting two children.
“We are really excited about the generosity on campus,”
she said.
Francisco Banda, international business senior and the association’s
vice president, said the two children didn’t ask for anything
expensive and that buying the presents was an easy thing to do.
“When you are little, you expect a Christmas gift,”
he said. “Not everybody gets one.”
Banda said the group had only planned to adopt one child but found
out there were two children left and decided they didn’t want
one of them to be left out.
He said the association’s officers will collect money from
all the members and purchase the gifts, which will be wrapped and
turned in to the community before Thursday.
Skiles-du Toit said the parents who bring their children’s
wish lists are usually single mothers with low incomes who can’t
have full-time jobs because they are in school. They then turn in
lists of what they think their kids might want, she said.
At the end of the program, the community will host a party for the
families where the children will unwrap their presents, Skiles-du
Toit said. The donors will also be invited, she said
She said they were excited that the association decided to participate
again this year and appreciated the generosity of taking two children.
“We could have gone to Target, but it’s more personal
when it comes from the UTA community,” Skiles-du Toit said,
“It’s like we are supporting our own.”
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