By Stephen Wilson
Wishing someone happy holidays is easy.
While bringing happiness to your holidays may be just as easy, finding a way to bring joy and light to another person’s life this time of year can be a bit harder.
But Landis student leaders are doing just that.
Student leaders in the MOSAIC program, as part of Landis Center for Community Engagement, are doing all they can to bring happiness this holiday season, but it requires your help.
Holiday Helpers launches Nov. 1 and is hoping to impact 150 families.
Annie Krege ’23, Quentin Humphrey ’25, Alexis Fishman ’22, and Kevin Manogue ’22 are leading this project under the guidance of Melissa Ash, assistant director, Landis Center. Together, they are working alongside two community partners: The Easton Area Neighborhood Center and St. Luke’s Nurse Family Partnership.
Anyone who is interested in helping a local family feel the happiness of the season is asked to engage in the project through some various physical and virtual options.
First, you can pick up a gift tag in Farinon over the course of the first week, Nov. 1-5—300 tags are available with each listing gift ideas for a child and/or parent.
If getting to campus isn’t easy, student leaders created an Amazon shopping list featuring needed items.
More of a gift card person? Fine! They are seeking $25 gift cards from Amazon, Walmart, or Giant. Big gift cards, while generous of you, make it hard to distribute to families fairly, so please keep the gift card amount at $25.
A monetary donation is also an option through Venmo or stopping by the Landis Center.
“We wanted to provide a range of ways to participate in order to engage students, faculty, staff, and alumni,” says Krege.
The leaders have created a marketing campaign that leverages emails to students, ads in the student newspaper, social media posts, and partnerships with campus entities including athletics and Greek life.
“As a student who recently participated in the Landis Center’s Pre-Orientation Service Program, it can be easy as the semester gets going to forget about what is happening in this community a few blocks away,” says Humphrey. “As students, we come into a community that supports the College. That support should be a two-way street.”
“It is important for us not to neglect our neighbors down the street,” says Fishman. “Many of us are fortunate, and this is an opportunity to give back to those who are less fortunate.”
“This is an opportunity to help when and how we can,” says Humphrey.
Help like this will no doubt spread happiness.
