Sponsorships for the Center for Civic Engagement’s (CCE) annual Holiday Helper program are officially open.
Help make a local child’s holiday wishes come true through the Holiday Helper program. This program annually provides gifts for hundreds of children in the community.
CCE’s community partner organizations provide names, ages, wants, and needs for local children, and then University students, faculty, and staff can sponsor a child through CCE’s online system. Sponsors will spend approximately $50 on each child and can drop off all gifts at CCE during drop-off times.
Visit the Holiday Helper website for more information and to sponsor a child.
“We partner with five community organizations (Boys & Girls Club of Bloomington Normal, Unity Community Center, Marcfirst, Western Avenue Community Center, and the Center for Youth & Family Solutions) to find children to participate in the Holiday Helper program,” said McKenna Myers, community service graduate assistant at CCE.
“In addition to finding sponsors, we cooperate with the partner organizations to put on Holiday Helper Parties for the children and their families.”
CCE is looking for student groups to help facilitate and host the holiday parties at each of the community organizations. More information on roles/responsibilities for these parties will be available closer to fall break.
The student groups that volunteer get to attend the party and help the kids with various activities. If you are interested in helping with a holiday party, contact McKenna Myers.
While sponsoring a child is a great way to help the families, there are also other ways to get involved. There will be hundreds of presents to wrap, so CCE relies on students, faculty, and staff to volunteer to help package the gifts during the Wrap & Pack Events.
The work for the Wrap & Pack Events will be done on November 29 and 30. Times and registration will be available later in October for anyone interested.
Another great way to help is to drop off packages of socks at CCE for the SOCKtober sock drive. Socks are the item most often listed on the children’s wish lists. CCE is collecting new, in-package socks throughout the month of October to give each child socks, so they can ask for something they want instead of something they need.
