UMW Gift Box Drive Helps ‘Open Hearts’ to Area School Children

A group of University of Mary Washington students donned elf hats this week for a special holiday delivery.

The COAR (Community Outreach and Resources) staff – and the entire UMW community – spent months filling gift-wrapped shoeboxes with winter hats, school supplies and toys for preschool students. The annual effort produced more than 300 packages specifically for youngsters in Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County schools, including students in the Head Start Program, which provides education and resources for eligible children ages 3 to 5.

“It’s heartwarming to see,” Center for Community Engagement Director Sarah Dewees said of the event, which calls on UMW students, faculty, staff and friends to provide supplies and fill boxes. “It kind of brings the campus community together.”

More than 75 students participated in a wrapping party this fall, Dewees said, covering boxes in paper with festive designs – snowmen and snowflakes, and penguins and pineapples and polar bears. Throughout the following weeks, boxes were checked out by those willing to stuff them with required and requested items, including coloring books, crayons, toothbrushes and more.

“We’ve been working for almost two months now to fill all these boxes and get people to understand it’s important,” said sophomore Knox McKinley, who’s double majoring in sociology and women’s and gender studies. “It just helps open a lot of people’s hearts.”

UMW sophomore Knox McKinley talks with a group of preschool students as they open gift boxes provided by UMW’s COAR. Photo by Karen Pearlman.

UMW sophomore Ainsley Lord (left) and alumna Tamara Garrett ’23 talk with preschool children from Fredericksburg City Public Schools as they open gift boxes delivered by COAR. Photo by Karen Pearlman.

Four-year-old Jaylyn (center) checks out a set of colorful toothbrushes inside the gift box he received from UMW’s COAR. For its annual gift box effort, the group filled more than 300 wrapped boxes with useful and fun items for kids. Photos by Karen Pearlman.

UMW senior Khushi Constance, a marketing major and COAR staff director, talks with a preschool student who’s already started coloring in her new coloring book with her new crayons. Photo by Karen Pearlman.

From left to right, UMW COAR members Knox McKinley, Ainsley Lord and Khushi Constance (along with Center for Community Engagement Director Sarah Dewees, in red) talk to children as they open their gifts. Photo by Karen Pearlman.

McKinley, who serves as COAR’s intern mentor, was on hand for this week’s delivery to Fredericksburg’s Walker-Grant Center, along with other UMW students on the COAR staff. Ninety boxes went to Spotsylvania County Schools, while more than 200 were presented in Fredericksburg, where 13 classes of preschool children filed into the gym, one at a time, posing for pictures, talking to Santa and tearing into their gifts.

Along with cold weather gear, like hats and gloves, and hygienic supplies, like toothpaste and toothbrushes, the boxes were packed with small toys, from My Little Pony and Paw Patrol to X-men and VIP Pets. There were stuffed animals and toy cars, trolls with long purple hair and a rainbow of playdough in plastic cans.

“Watching the joy on the kids’ faces when they open the boxes is priceless,” said Fredericksburg Preschool Programs Director Laura Dove. “I love seeing the partnership between college kids and the youngest generation.”

UMW junior Sarah Hybl, an English major who is also studying secondary education, helps Santa deliver a gift to a preschool student in Fredericksburg. Photo by Karen Pearlman.

UMW students Sarah Hybl (left) and Jillian Vargas (right), who both are part of UMW’s COAR staff, help students open gift boxes filled with toys and essentials. Photo by Karen Pearlman.

UMW sophomore Jillian Vargas, an international relations major who handles COAR’s social media, helps children unwrap and discover their gifts. Photo by Karen Pearlman.

UMW international relations major Jillian Vargas was among several current and former COAR members who visited schools in Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania to drop off gift boxes. The students worked for months to fill the boxes with toothbrushes, crayons, toys and more. Photo by Karen Pearlman.

An excited preschooler receives a present at Fredericksburg’s Walker-Grant Center. UMW’s Community Outreach and Resources (COAR) worked for months to fill hundreds of boxes with small gifts to present to area children. Photo by Karen Pearlman.

COAR’s six programs each year – from Into the Streets to Good Neighbor Day – require community outreach, event planning, volunteer recruitment and other skills, said Khushi Constance, a senior marketing major who serves as staff director.

But the annual Gift Box Drive holds a special place in participants’ hearts.

“It just feels like the best way to show that kids are part of the community, too,” said Tamara Garrett ’23, who participated in COAR as a UMW student and now works in the office as an AmeriCorps VISTA Volunteer. “I’ve always thought that kids should be the center of the community because you’re building them up to be a meaningful part of it.”