LSC Toy Drive
Ada Lambert | December 1, 2022
One of the core values at Warren Wilson College (WWC) is community engagement. Each semester, the school offers many different ways of engaging with the surrounding areas, whether it be through volunteer work or donations. In December, the LSC (Latinx Student Collective) will be holding a toy drive in collaboration with a local non-profit organization, Bounty and Soul.
Bounty and Soul is an organization based in Black Mountain, N.C. that provides free, fresh produce at local markets each week. The idea for a collaboration sparked from a conversation between WWC student and LSC co-president, Christian Palacio and the coordinator of Latinx Community Engagement at Bounty and Soul, Francisco Chavez.
“There's a Latin market every Wednesday, and last year, I was working with [Chavez], who is the person that runs it, and I was like, 'it would be nice to do a little Children's Day celebration,” Palacio said. “We could do a toy drive at the school,' and he was like, 'that's really cool, we should do that.'”
They held the Children’s Day toy drive last April, which was a successful event for everyone involved. The other co-president of LSC, Kenia Romero, also got to take part in the event and was happy with the outcome.
“We got a lot of toys and items for the kids,” Romero said. “Everybody got something. Some of them even went up twice to get another toy, so it was really great. A lot of teachers, employees, and students showed up too.”
Children choose books from the LSC toy drive.
In light of their Children’s Day drive, they have decided to extend the toy drives to the holiday season to provide gifts for those in need. Chavez was completely on board with the idea and believes it will be a great experience for the children.
“We were thinking of doing it on Christmas because it's a good holiday to give something,” Chavez said. “So that's why we're doing it this month, to be able to collect as many toys as we can for the community.”
Chavez has found lots of fulfillment through witnessing the appreciation that comes with giving. He hopes to see the community join together once again to provide a great holiday season to all families alike.
“Seeing the kids happy, running around with their toys, it makes me feel so much joy,” Chavez said. “Even the moms and the families come in and thank me and thank everybody on the crew for doing this. This is something extra that we love to do, because it's the right thing to do to help the community.”
For anybody who is willing to donate gifts for the holidays, LSC will be accepting gifts like toys, baby clothes, winter clothes, sports equipment or any other gift that’s in good condition from now until Dec. 14. Gifts can be dropped off at Ransom House in the Christmas boxes near the door.
For those with questions, please contact lsc@warren-wilson.edu.