photo courtesy of ΑΞΔ

Every year Alpha Xi Delta holds the Teddy Bear Drive as part of their philanthropy, which is Choose Children

Alpha Xi Delta give gifts to hospitalized children in annual philanthropic event

RACHEL KINGSTROM

Staff Writer

The sisters of Alpha Xi Delta re-cently reached out to sick children with stuffed animals for their annual philanthropy event, the Alpha Xi Delta Teddy Bear Drive.

The teddy bear drive lasted from December 8, 2003 to January 30, 2004. The Alpha Xi Delta members were very happy about the outcome of the event. “I think it went really well,” Tessia Zawilinski (06) said. “There were a lot of girls that helped.”

The sisters really enjoyed helping the children. “There are now a lot of sick but happy kids,” Lauren Dart (05). “It is less scary for them [to have] the teddy bears to hold while they are in the hospital.”

Members collected over 100 stuffed animals during the drive. The drive was not limited only to teddy bears. “We collected all kinds of stuffed animals,” Dart said, “It’s just called the teddy bear drive because that’s our mascot.”

On January 30, half of the stuffed animals were delivered to the pediatric emergency room at Gratiot County Hospital, and they were given to the sick children who are patients there. The doctors were excited that the girls were helping them out. “They just loved it, and the kids were happy,” Zawilinski said. “I think it made a good name for the Greek community,” Dart said, “The doctors were really excited to hear we were from the Greek community. They usually don’t see much from the college.”

The other half of the stuffed animals went to the pediatric unit near and were presented to the main doctors there. At both locations, the sisters got the opportunity to take pictures with the doctors. “The reason we chose those locations was because we want to stay local and direct the help towards the Alma community,” Dart said.

Since Alpha Xi Delta’s philanthropy is Choose Children, most of the time they try to organize philanthropic events that benefit children. The sisters believe that doing philanthropy for children is very important. They felt that this particular event had a positive effect on the kids. “I love children. It gives me a great feeling to give to them,” Zawilinski said, “It’s really rewarding. It’s also setting an example for the kids to help others.”

While the event helped out the community, there was a lack of campus involvement. A majority of the stuffed animals came from Alpha Xi Delta members. The sisters had put up flyers around campus, but they didn’t seem to have very much effect on students outside the sorority.

Dart thought the reason that not many people participated was because they might have been uncomfortable with their method of collecting the stuffed animals. “I think some people were scared to leave them outside in boxes, which is understandable,” Dart said. “Maybe next year we’ll just keep the drive within the Greek community.”

The girls want to try to get more of the campus involved in next year’s teddy bear drive. “Our primary goal for next year is to get more support from the campus,” Zawilinski added. “We want to get people more involved. Maybe we need to advertise better on campus.”

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