{"id":5090,"date":"2018-11-08T16:26:22","date_gmt":"2018-11-08T16:26:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/?p=5090"},"modified":"2018-11-08T16:52:08","modified_gmt":"2018-11-08T16:52:08","slug":"ecs-community-plans-to-give-back-this-christmas-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/?p=5090","title":{"rendered":"ECS community plans to give back this Christmas season"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"wpsdc-drop-cap\">A<\/span>s the Christmas season slowly approaches, the anticipation of all the joys that come with it is inevitable. The thoughts of upcoming tree decorating, gift wrapping, and winter break bring ease to our minds. It\u2019s in the midst of our merriment that we may often forget those around the world who may not have the same luxury.<\/p>\n<p>For the first time, the Early Childhood Studies program at Guelph-Humber has partnered up with Samaritan\u2019s Purse, an organization that has developed a hands-on project called Operation Christmas Child. This project encourages Canadians to fill shoeboxes with toys, school supplies and hygiene items for them to be collected and shipped to children in underdeveloped countries.<\/p>\n<p>This project is open to students in all programs besides ECS. Assistant Program Head of Early Childhood Studies Elena Merenda says, \u201cduring the Christmas holidays, there\u2019s just that feeling of community and giving back which is important for everyone to share.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to its official website, Samaritan\u2019s Purse is a nondenominational Christian organization that provides spiritual and physical aid to victims of poverty, natural disasters and famine. The creation of Operation Christmas Child began in 1990 by a couple in Wales and it has grown into the world\u2019s largest Christmas program today. Also according to the website, in 2017, Canadians donated over 600,000 shoeboxes.<\/p>\n<p>The boxes can be picked up from the Early Childhood Resource Centre. Rosie Rojas, a second-year ECS student who volunteers in the centre says that the reception has been very positive. \u201cWe\u2019ve had many boxes signed out so far and many people are taking a maximum of four at a time,\u201d says Rojas.<\/p>\n<p>ECS is also sharing this opportunity to students who aren\u2019t on campus daily. With a minimum $20 e-transfer, students \u201cwho are in Newfoundland and different parts of the world who want to take part but can\u2019t physically come here, they can send us the money and we\u2019ll do it for them,\u201d says Merenda. \u201cWe actually have a few online students who have made this their Christmas gift, so instead of buying their co-workers a gift, they\u2019re donating this box in their friends\u2019 names.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Information officer Tatjana Susa contributed to this project alongside three other individuals.\u00a0 \u201cMy team and I want to impact this partnership in a positive aspect,\u201d says Susa. \u201cWe want to ensure Operation Christmas Child knows we [University of Guelph-Humber] as an institution care deeply about those around us and love to participate in any way that will exercise our passion for helping others.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As the Christmas season slowly approaches, the anticipation of all the joys that come with it is inevitable. The thoughts of upcoming tree decorating, gift wrapping, and winter break bring ease to our minds. It\u2019s in the midst of our merriment that we may often forget those around the world who may not have the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":5091,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[48,174],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5090"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}