Christmas Toy Drive Needs You

Taish Rochester, a specialist with The City College of New York’s (CCNY) Community Affairs team is coordinating the Public Safety Department’s annual Christmas Toy Drive. She was raised in Harlem and remembers the generous work of charities who helped her family celebrate Christmas. She sees herself in the children who will receive the donated gifts. “I know that I was that child at one time, looking for something, and I didn’t really understand where it came from until I got older and appreciated it more.”

Specialist Rochester said the department holds the drive to give back to the community. “A lot of times we either collaborate with the NYPD or find our own small organizations to collaborate with on different things,” she explained. This year, the department hopes to donate the toys to Harlem Hospital’s children’s ward.

In 2022, the toys from the toy drive were donated to a Harlem-based organization that supports children with sickle cell disease. Sometimes members of CCNY’s student body also get involved. Last year, one of the school’s fraternities and sororities collaborated with the community affairs team and were present to distribute the toys to the children. The Public Safety Department wants to involve as many on campus as possible. “It’s definitely a mixture of faculty and staff and students,” Specialist Rochester said.

Specialist Rochester and her colleagues want to bring kids joy and hope others on campus will jump in. They are asking for interactive toys, as well as any toys that would mean a lot for a kid to have. But some students we spoke with on campus were not aware of the drive.

“Oh, I didn’t even know we were having a toy drive, but I’ll totally donate something if I can,” said Chloe Hendricks, a CCNY junior on her way to English class. “What do little kids like, like stuffed animals? Yeah, I can do that,” she said.

Students, staff  and faculty are encouraged to bring any unwrapped donations to room 4/201 in the North Academic Center. Donations are accepted through December 19th.