Each year, Ross Medical Education Center in Cincinnati, Ohio partners with area organization Specialized Alternatives for Families and Youth (SAFY) to collect toys during the holiday season for foster children. The Cincinnati Ross campus acted as a community collection location for this drive. This was the campus’ fourth year participating in the toy drive, and it was a huge success. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, students, faculty, and staff gathered together purchase and wrap toys for children in foster care.
This holiday season, Specialized Alternatives for Families and Youth provided the Cincinnati campus with 25 tags for the gifts. On each tag was very important information about each child including their name, age, and interests. This year they were able to raise nearly $1250 and provided approximately 50 gifts for the 25 assigned children and young teens. Samantha Meredith, who recently joined the Cincinnati team as the Assistant Campus Director of Admissions, shared about her experience with her team, “we enjoyed knowing we were able to provide Christmas for children that really needed it. That is what the holiday season is all about.”
For this year’s drive, the campus partnered with Toneia Williams with Specialized Alternatives for Families and Youth in their collection efforts. Ms. Williams had joined the organization earlier in the year and had heard that the Ross campus always does such a great job. She was excited to join in with the campus. She even stopped by to introduce herself in November, and everyone was ready to get started. On December 18th, Specialized Alternatives for Families and Youth visited the campus to present a special award for the campus’ continued partnership. The Ross Cincinnati campus was awarded the SAFY Ambassador Award. The award reads: “Inspiring others to make a difference in the lives of our children!”
This is an event that everyone looks forward to and that the campus plans on doing this coming year and for many years to come. “It is an honor to participate in this annual event,” said Robin Re, Campus Director at the Cincinnati campus said. “It is heartwarming to be able to provide Christmas for foster children. Our students take great joy in supporting something as special as making Christmas wishes come true.”
To learn more about this organization and how you can help, visit the Specialized Alternatives for Families and Youth of Cincinnati Facebook page or their website at www.safy.org.