By George Karatorosyan
The 2012-2013 Chabad at UCI Toy Drive was a major success this year, bringing together students in supporting and donating to both local children in need and those affected by Hurricane Sandy. The toy drive, hosted by Chabad at UCI occurs every year here at UC Irvine where students, faculty, and passer-byers can make a stop at our “toy shop”, purchase a toy for $1 from a wide variety of available toys and choose to donate the toy they purchased to the charity of their choice. This year the toy drive saw a record number of participants ultimately amounting to 250+ toys being donated to children in need. Many students from various Jewish organizations on campus took part in the toy drive, donating time to tabling and making the toy drive possible.
The beauty of the event was surrounded by all of the goodness it brought to campus life and to the students at a time where other groups were bringing negativity to campus. The event helped spread goodwill, warmness, and practice of kind deed at a time of negative atmosphere on campus. I personally felt that the goodness brought about to campus greatly helped to overcome the negative atmosphere and ultimately brought together individuals who wanted to donate to children in need during the holiday season. Seeing the excitement of those who participated in this year’s toy drive reminded all of us of the importance of bringing about positivity in all that we do. And most certainly positivity and goodness came about through the toy drive and all of the people we were able to reach out to. Seeing so many students and faculty take time out of busy schedules to stop by and help those in need truly shed light on all of the goodness and positivity that was able to come about from the toy drive.