Spring Break
ECU bans together to help needy
Students encouraged to donate unneeded items
Brittani McNeill
Issue date: 12/2/08 Section: News
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Now in its 14th year, the holiday drive is a campus-wide effort to provide assistance to families in need during the holiday season.
A new program called Pirates Treasure has also been launched on campus. In its first year, Pirates Treasure is an initiative encouraging students to drop off household items they no longer want or need to various sites on and off campus. These sites will be open on ECU reading days, Dec. 4 and 5, from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Both drives are a way for students to make use of all the items they no longer want or need as the semester ends, instead of throwing them away.
For the Holiday Drive, members of the ECU community are asked to donate toys, food, clothing and household supply items to assist local charities during the holiday season. They can be dropped off at collection locations across campus.
The collected items will be donated to Pitt County Social Services Children's Protective Services Unit, The REAL Crisis Center, New Directions Family Violence Shelter, Flynn Christian Home, Pitt County Adult Services and the N.C. Food Bank.
Leslie Craigle, director of marketing for ECU Business Services, said that the drive was started 14 years ago by the dean of students, who thought if the university banded together it could have a big impact on the surrounding community. She noted the importance of the entire campus working together on the project.
"The Holiday Drive is a collaborative effort of the whole campus community involving academic departments, staff, service departments and students, and we'd love to have students get involved in this either as a group or as individuals," she said.
Collection boxes for the Holiday Drive are in place around campus through Dec. 12. Suggested items for donation include non-perishable food items, new toys and sporting goods, new or gently used clothing items, school supplies, health and hygiene products, kitchen, bath and bedroom items and small electronics. According to Craigle, toys are especially needed by agencies to provide to children who don't have sponsors for the holiday season.
The Pirates Treasure collection is seeking household items such as furniture, kitchen appliances, clothing, non-perishable food items and more. There will be five drop off sites in campus area neighborhoods, with portable storage containers to house the items. ECU Dean of Students, Lynn Roeder, is chairing the project.
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