2008 Woodie Awards
Call for backpacks, toys
By Brianna Roberts
Issue date: 11/21/08 Section: Premiere
Originally published: 11/20/08 at 6:28 PM CSTLast update: 11/20/08 at 6:26 PM CST
Teaching Academy Program Peers and the People Enabling Other People to Live Equally Club are working together to bring toys and backpacks to poor children in Mexico.
Sara Gabel, vice president of the PEOPLE club, has a friend in Mexico who works with an after-school program to get children off the street. When it came to her attention that those children didn't have any toys to play with, she suggested a toy drive to clubs here.
They play outside a lot, Gabel said, and they have basketball hoops, but no nets or balls.
Gabel set out to try to collect as many toys that the children could play with outside as possible, citing basketballs, baseballs and footballs as suggestions for what to donate.
Gabel will deliver the toys at Christmastime.
"They know that they're getting something," Gabel said, "They just don't know what."
Along with Gable and the PEOPLE club, TAPP is also trying to help.
"There are other toy drives, and I didn't want a conflict (with those)," Teresa Rodriguez, president of TAPP, said.
So she decided to collect backpacks to put the toys in that the children can keep.
"I felt that a backpack is something that they can carry their toys in," Rodriguez said.
The backpacks should be sturdy, preferably nylon, and Rodriguez cautions against rolling backpacks.
"Mexico is mostly cement sidewalks and dirt streets," Rodriguez said. "You have to make sure that the backpacks are tough, especially for a kid, since they take them everywhere."
Sara Gabel, vice president of the PEOPLE club, has a friend in Mexico who works with an after-school program to get children off the street. When it came to her attention that those children didn't have any toys to play with, she suggested a toy drive to clubs here.
They play outside a lot, Gabel said, and they have basketball hoops, but no nets or balls.
Gabel set out to try to collect as many toys that the children could play with outside as possible, citing basketballs, baseballs and footballs as suggestions for what to donate.
Gabel will deliver the toys at Christmastime.
"They know that they're getting something," Gabel said, "They just don't know what."
Along with Gable and the PEOPLE club, TAPP is also trying to help.
"There are other toy drives, and I didn't want a conflict (with those)," Teresa Rodriguez, president of TAPP, said.
So she decided to collect backpacks to put the toys in that the children can keep.
"I felt that a backpack is something that they can carry their toys in," Rodriguez said.
The backpacks should be sturdy, preferably nylon, and Rodriguez cautions against rolling backpacks.
"Mexico is mostly cement sidewalks and dirt streets," Rodriguez said. "You have to make sure that the backpacks are tough, especially for a kid, since they take them everywhere."
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