The Community Giving at MIT campaign is sponsoring a clothing and food drive that will run from Monday, Dec. 4 until Friday, Dec. 15.
Of the 10 drop-off locations, two are new this year: the Building 13 lobby (replacing Lobby 7 due to impending renovation) and the rear lobby of Walker Memorial. There will no longer be a box in NW16-204. The other eight drop-off sites are the first-floor lobbies of Buildings 34, E18/E19, E23/E25, E52, W91 (outside Rm 103), NE43 and the Stratton Student Center, as well as Rm NW21-104. Items collected during the drive will be donated to three Cambridge agencies: CASPAR (Cambridge and Somerville Program for Drug Abuse and Alcoholism), the Salvation Army and Shelter, Inc.
Items on the clothing drive "wish list" include clean winter clothing of all types for adults (coats, hats, sweaters, boots, gloves and mittens); shoes; long underwear and regular underwear; towels and face cloths; single-bed sheets, pillowcases and blankets; and socks, even if they don't match. Campaign organizers ask that clothing be put in bags and labeled as men's or women's so donations can be given to appropriate shelters.
Food pantries at the shelters also need nonperishable food items including rice, peanut butter, powdered milk, soups of all kinds, hot and cold cereal, cake and cookie mixes, pasta, pasta sauce and canned goods. Food and other items besides clothing should be put in paper or plastic bags and placed in the food boxes at the drop-off locations.
Also needed are laundry detergent and personal care items including combs, brushes, soap, shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste, shaving materials, etc.
The three shelters do not need infants' or children's clothing, but the Children's Clothing Exchange (located in the basement of the Grace United Methodist Church in Cambridge) welcomes clothing for infants to age 12, as well as household furnishings. Community members who wish to donate such items may call Sonya Darcy at the Children's Clothing Exchange at 576-0039 on Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Saturdays from 9:30am-3:30pm to arrange for items to be picked up (a one-week advance notice is requested).
For more information, contact the Community Giving at MIT campaign headquarters in the Office of Special Community Services, Rm 50-005 (lower lobby of Walker Memorial), x3-7914. The campaign's web site is at http://web.mit.edu/community-giving.
As of November 20, the Community Giving at MIT campaign has raised $101,403 from 384 contributors, including 20 at the Leadership Giving level of at least $1,000 apiece. The campaign aims to raise $350,000 by December 29.
The "Books are Fun" book fair held on November 15 raised $600, which will be divided between the Community Service Fund and the United Way of Massachusetts Bay (UWMB). Contributors to the campaign may opt to give to the UWMB or any of its supported organizations, the Community Service Fund, or any 501(c)(3) health and human services agency.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on November 22, 2000.
