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Megan Addy of UNMC Public Affairs, left, and Mary Feldman, guidance counselor at Monroe Middle School, with the first load of gifts for students and their families. |
UNMC employees across campus have brightened the lives of others this holiday season with their generous gifts and donations. Here is a sampling of holiday giving on campus:
Adopt-A-School families helped
UNMC employees have shared their holiday spirit with UNMC’s Adopt-A-School partners — Monroe Middle School and Fontenelle Elementary School.
Thanks to a generous UNMC employee, one family received a new refrigerator. Others purchased and wrapped toys and clothing, or gave cash donations toward gift certificates from Baker’s and Target.
This year, UNMC/NHS departments and individuals sponsored 10 families at Monroe Middle School and 13 families at Fontenelle Elementary School. UNMC collected gifts for the families at Monroe Middle School and purchased gift certificates to Baker’s and Target for the families at Fontenelle Elementary School.
“We’d like to thank everyone at UNMC and NHS who helped make the holidays brighter for these families,” said Megan Addy, who coordinates the Adopt-A-School Program in UNMC Public Affairs. “We had a wonderful response from employees and were able to help even more families than we had originally planned.”
UNMC’s WIC Clinic celebrates giving
UNMC’s Women, Infants & Children Clinic made the holidays merrier for approximately 70 children between the ages of one week and 18 years old. The clinic recently sponsored its third annual Giving Tree-Angel Tree program, which provides donated gifts for children in UNMC’s WIC Clinic.
The UNMC Child Development Center, the Business & Finance Department, the Pediatrics Department and the Indian-Chicano WIC Clinic donated gifts for the Dec. 20 party at the WIC Clinic, 42nd & Center streets. The party included an appearance by Santa Claus, played by Gary Honeysett, office supervisor of the UNMC WIC Clinic, as well as free punch and cookies donated by HyVee and Albertson’s, respectively. Mangelsen’s donated the Santa outfit.
“We were so happy to do this for the children and the families,” said Liz Tahaney, chief nutritionist at the UNMC WIC Clinic. “It reminds us of what the holidays are all about — helping others.”
College of Nursing collect gifts
Faculty, staff and students in the UNMC College of Nursing in Omaha sponsored a Christmas/Angel Tree this year.
The college received 94 ornaments — supplied by the St. Vincent de Paul Society — for the Christmas tree. Each ornament had information such as age and gift suggestions.
Three eighth-graders from (Adam, Colin and Andrew) St. Bernadette volunteered to come to the College of Nursing on a recent Saturday morning to help transport the gifts to the society’s designated location.
McGoogan Library helps youngsters
Staff members of the McGoogan Library have been strong supporters of the Fontennelle Grade School Library, which they adopted several years ago. During 2002, McGoogan Library staff held a bake sale, two book sales and volunteered their time to work the Thanksgiving Holiday weekend at Zainy Brainy wrapping gifts to raise money for books. Over the past several years, the Library has raised more than $2,500 for books for the school.
For the second year, the staff donated household and food items for the Ronald McDonald house as one of the Library’s holiday activities. The staff also held a “Food for Fines” event this month to collect canned goods instead of money for overdue items. The food collected also was donated to the Ronald McDonald House.
Written by Michael Molde and Karen Burbach, UNMC public affairs; Lori Cooley, College of Nursing; and Mary Helms, McGoogan Library.