by: NICOLE TRUGILLO/Editor-in-Chief
The South Plains College libraries are hosting the sixth annual Christmas Stocking Drive.
The stocking drive first began a few years ago when a student from the Reese Center campus named Patricia Villanueva was involved with an organization called Operation Homefront.
“[Patricia] had leftover toys from that project, and some of our other student workers thought it would be a great idea to use those extra toys to fill stockings and deliver them to the children that were at hospitals in Lubbock,” explains Tracey Pineda, librarian at the Reese Center campus. “She hasn’t been a student at SPC for several years, so we’ve been trying to keep the project going. Our student workers are the ones interested in continuing the project. So, they’re getting very creative.”
The donations of the stockings will go to local hospitals. But through the years, the student workers have delivered to other places.
“This year, we’re going to UMC and Covenant,” says Pineda. “We have delivered in the past to Women’s Protective Services, to Hope House, and to My Father’s House. This year will depend on the number of stockings we get.”
Last year, Portrait Innovations in Lubbock donated a $100 gift card, and they are doing the same thing this year as well.
“We’re going to raffle off the gift card and raise money if we’re short in any area,” Pineda explains. “They have been very generous.”
The goal for this year’s stocking drive is to stuff 250 stockings for infants and children, ranging from 3- years-old to 12-years-old, and teenagers.
“We set a higher goal this year because UMC has been added,” says Pineda.” We have donation lists that we give out. We don’t want to leave children out who are out of the age spectrum.”
According to Pineda, the HSO (Hispanic Student Organization) has partnered with the Reese Center campus student workers in the library to help out with the stocking drive.
“One of our student workers was invited to the Hispanic Women Association banquet earlier this fall, and she met Celeste Franco, who is the new president of the Hispanic Student Organization,” explains Pineda. “They got to talking, and the HSO wanted to get involved and help as their service projects. They’re going to help publicize for us in Levelland.”
Donations will be accepted until Dec. 11, but it is encouraged to donate a week before finals.
“It would be better for our students if the donations can be made before finals,” says Pineda. “It’ll give us a little bit of breathing room before finals. We will take things up to the last minute.”
If anyone would like to donate, the locations are: the Reese Center campus library (Building 8); the Byron Martin Advanced Technology Center (Room 114); and the Levelland campus library.
For more information on the stocking drive, contact the Reese Center library at (806) 716-4682.
Leave a Reply