Above: Mount Holyoke student-athletes standing with just a few of the gifts bought for 103 local children through the SAAC Toy Drive on Dec. 14, 2022. (Erica Lemm) At right: Tennis team members Kennedy Bagley-Fortner '26 and Shweta Kiran Cavale '23 (right) wrapping presents in Blanchard Hall. (Kate Vavra '26)
SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. -- If it's the holiday season, and Mount Holyoke students are making their way through final exams and papers, then we can be sure another annual activity is also taking place on campus: the Spirit of Giving Toy Drive, hosted by the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC).
Run by its community service subcommittee, the Toy Drive is a longstanding SAAC tradition which annually fulfills the wish list of between 100 and 250 area children.
This year, working with local nonprofit Wonderfund, 103 children who are supported by the Holyoke Department of Children and Families were matched with Mount Holyoke employees, students, alums, friends and families who signed up with SAAC to have their wish or need lists fulfilled. Lyons teams often team up to pool funds and sponsor multiple children, who this year range in age from 1 month to 11 years old.
"We try to be as involved as possible, and give back to the community that we live in," said senior swimming and diving team captain Anais Magner, who was serving in her final days as SAAC chair this year. (Emily Mock '24 now chairs SAAC's executive board.)
Piles of gifts earmarked for the children were collected, wrapped and packaged by Mount Holyoke student-athletes in Blanchard Hall on Wednesday, to be collected by Holyoke DCF.
Magner, who is from New Zealand, appreciates the community outreach that this particular SAAC initiative embodies.
"I feel like I don't spend a lot of time interacting with the community as a whole; I spend a lot of time interacting with students on campus or in Amherst," she said. "So the Toy Drive is an opportunity to expand my circle and to interact with the wider community here."
