The university is partnering with Skyline Urban Ministries this holiday season to help families in need.
Various departments and organizations on campus will support 20 families from a list provided by Skyline. Students, faculty and staff who volunteer to help will purchase items on a wish list and deliver them to Skyline who will deliver the items to the families.
Skyline’s mission is to impact lives, empower those in need and to address the roots of poverty in Oklahoma, according to skylineurbanministry.org.
All types of gifts are needed. The families with children will receive gifts and toys as well as clothes, shoes and decorations. Blankets, backpacks and food also are on the Christmas lists.
Rita Himes, university-church relations administrative assistant, is coordinating the gift drive for the second year and said she is ready to get started.
“We know we are helping people that really need help,” she said.
The families range from a single 80-year-old woman to a family of eight, who the cheer and pom teams have agreed to sponsor.
Other groups helping families include the admissions office, student services, the law school, the nursing school, and various individuals on campus.
The gift drive is geared toward faculty and staff, but students are welcome to sponsor families as well.
If students would like to contribute to the gift drive contact Himes in the church relations office located in the Administration building or by email at rhimes@okcu.edu.
Skyline also assists OCU with the ongoing canned food drive on campus and the Wesley Center clothing drive in the spring.
To help with the canned food drive, any student can drop off cans at the activities table in front of the caf in Tom and Brenda McDaniel University Center.
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