TOLEDO, Ohio — The University of Toledo is asking its campus community to help brighten the holidays for neighbors across northwest Ohio, opening three giving initiatives this week that together aim to put hygiene kits in the hands of patients, toys under the trees of student parents, and gifts with local children through the Salvation Army.
The three drives — the UToledo Health Hygiene Drive, the Catharine S. Eberly Center Toy Drive and the Angel Tree Project — were announced by the university on Thursday, Nov. 12, in UToledo News, the university’s official news service. Each has its own deadline in the weeks ahead, and each is aimed at a different corner of need on campus and in the Toledo community.
The hygiene drive is the most hands-on of the three. UToledo Health’s annual effort aims to provide at least 400 kits for patients and community members in need, according to UToledo News. Departments can register to participate by Friday, Nov. 13, with empty bags available for pickup in Mulford Library Room 048 or by delivery. Each finished kit should include four rolls of toilet paper, two toothbrushes, two rolls of paper towels and full-size containers of shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, deodorant and hand soap.
Completed hygiene kits are due Tuesday, Dec. 1, and can be dropped off at the Office of Community Engagement in Mulford Library Room 048 or the Department of Service Excellence in UTMC Room 1192, UToledo News reported. Pickup can be arranged for Main Campus participants, and employees who would rather give money than assemble a kit can make a monetary donation through the UToledo Foundation.
The second drive is built specifically for the university’s own student parents. The Catharine S. Eberly Center is hosting its sixth annual Toy Drive, collecting new, unopened toys for the children of UToledo student parents through Monday, Nov. 30, according to UToledo News. Suggested donations and drop-off locations on the Main and Health Science campuses are listed on the center’s Toy Drive webpage.
Student parents can register for the Holiday Toy Exchange through Friday, Dec. 4. The exchange runs Tuesday through Thursday, Dec. 15–17, and offers one gift per child, along with diapers, coloring materials and one book per family — a package designed to stretch a student family’s holiday budget a little further at the end of the fall semester.
The third effort reaches beyond campus. In partnership with the Salvation Army, the Office of Student Engagement and Connections is collecting new, unwrapped toys, bicycles, scooters, books and stuffed animals for local children through Monday, Dec. 7, as part of the Angel Tree Project, UToledo News reported. Students, faculty, staff and campus organizations can sign up to sponsor an Angel or host a donation box, and gifts can also be dropped off in Thompson Student Union Room 1532.
The three drives land in a season when the university has been visibly leaning into service. Earlier this week the campus hosted its 22nd annual Veterans Breakfast at Savage Arena, and across the city, projects like the $22 million Mission Point supportive-housing development are trying to meet Toledo families’ longer-term needs. The holiday drives are the short-term version of the same instinct: specific items, specific deadlines, specific neighbors.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on. The deadlines and drop-off points above are confirmed by the university. What cannot be known yet is the response: whether departments will register in time to hit the 400-kit hygiene goal by Dec. 1, and how many children the Toy Drive and Angel Tree will reach when collections close on Nov. 30 and Dec. 7. The university typically reports those totals after the holidays.
For northwest Ohio families, the practical next step is the calendar. The first deadline arrives almost immediately — departments that want to assemble hygiene kits must register by Friday, Nov. 13 — followed by the Toy Drive close on Nov. 30, finished hygiene kits on Dec. 1, and Angel Tree gifts on Dec. 7. Anyone with questions about volunteering for the Angel Tree Project can email [email protected], according to UToledo News.
Photo: Xurxo, CC BY-SA 3.0