Kean Gives Back During the Holidays
The holiday spirit of giving is alive at Kean University as the campus community comes together for toy drives to benefit hundreds of New Jersey children.
Be the Change NJ, a philanthropic group headed by Assistant Professor Norma Bowe, Ph.D., worked with the Marine Corps Toys for Tots program and collected toys for 1,200 children in Newark, Elizabeth and New Brunswick.
The toy drive, called Santa to the Streets, is an outgrowth of Be the Change’s urban garden project, which promotes gardening in unused lots in Newark.
“We are very much involved in the community now. We are out there celebrating the holidays with the community, and Kean students are being mentors and amazing influencers to neighborhood children,” Bowe said.
The group is also working with Elizabeth public schools and Lazos America Unida in New Brunswick to bring toys to homeless and needy children this holiday season.
Kean students gathered in Hennings Hall this week to wrap the presents. One of them was Sarat Busari from Highland Park, a senior studying biology.
“It’s about giving back. We are happy to provide gifts to families that can’t afford presents for their kids. It makes me feel very joyful to see their smiles and how happy they are,” she said.
Kean athletes also offered their support. The women’s basketball and swimming teams are pitching in to sort and wrap gifts, and Kean football’s offensive coordinator David Galante volunteers each year to play Santa.
Also this holiday season, the Lesniak Institute for American Leadership, located in Kean’s STEM Building, is hosting its 21st Annual Operation Santa on Wednesday, December 21 at 5:30 p.m. to provide holiday gifts for children in need.
Operation Santa offers what the Institute calls “a full Christmas experience” for 75 children in Union County and their caregivers. There will be food, music, dancing, a photo booth, a visit from Santa and gifts tailored for each child. The event is sponsored by the Lesniak Institute through The Salena Lesniak Fund for Social Justice.
"There’s no better feeling than giving a child a gift for Christmas," said former state Senator Raymond Lesniak, founder and president of The Lesniak Institute. “Our mission with Operation Santa is to bring together our sponsors and disadvantaged children in a night full of dancing, laughter and joy.”
The Institute created a registry on Amazon where donors purchased hand-selected gifts from each child’s wish list. Monetary donations can still be made at lesniakinstitute.org/santa, and volunteers can help wrap presents Monday, December 19 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the 6th floor of the STEM Building. To sign up, email info@lesniakinstitute.org.
Kean student organizations also hosted other toy drives in December. Chi Upsilon Sigma held a Toys for Tots event, and the National Student Speech Language and Hearing Association held a Ryan’s Toy Roundup event to collect toys for the Ryan Faella Foundation.
The Elizabeth Coalition to House the Homeless benefited from student-run events. The Helping Younger Hands Club hosted Operation Christmas Basket to support the organization, and students in the Leadership Institute held a food and clothing drive. Students volunteered at the annual holiday boutique at Bernice’s Place, the Coalition’s afterschool program for homeless and at-risk children.
Kean students also created candygrams for City Relief, an organization in New Jersey and New York that provides assistance to the homeless, personally designing over 400 candygrams for local homeless individuals in Elizabeth.
