Santa and Mrs. Claus prepare to hand out candy to Health Science Center employees during the annual Holiday Reception.
Printer Friendly Format

This year’s Gifts for Children toy drive resulted in more than 4,200 toys and other items being donated. This number clears the 4,000 toys and other items that were donated last year.

After being sorted into age-appropriate groups, the toys were then bagged by volunteers and picked up by each hospital and clinic. Each of the clinics receives a box of educational toys, videos, and a variety of books that can be used in the clinics.

This year’s Gifts for Children chairs included, Patti Lairsey, academic coordinator in orthodontics; Kim Johnson, photographic technician in multimedia and web services; Corporal Karen Tucker, and Corporal Steve Atkins, of the Health Science Center Police Department.

Lairsey and Johnson have served as co-chairs of the program for 10-11 years. After many years of dedication and service, 2004 is the last year that Lairsey and Johnson will serve as co-chairs of the program. They have both enjoyed chairing this worthwhile committee and will continue to help the program in the future.

The toys collected from the program are donated to University Hospital, Christus Santa Rosa, the PREMIEre Program and several clinics and university programs.