Basketball + Blankets = Help for the Homeless

Basketball + Blankets = Help for the HomelessJanuary 19, 2001Judy Holmesjlholmes@syr.edu

Students Offering Service, SU women’s basketball team, campus groups mount blank drive.

There’s nothing better than snuggling under a warm blanket with a hot cup of cocoa on a cold winter night in Syracuse. Students Offering Service (SOS) at Syracuse University is encouraging people in the University and surrounding communities to share that cozy feeling with those who don’t have blankets, or, in many cases, a home by donating blankets or money during the group’s fifth annual Share the Warmth Blanket Drive, taking place on campus Feb. 1-18.  This year, SOS is teaming up with the SU women’s basketball team and more than 21 campus organizations to collect blankets, which will be distributed to community service organizations in Central New York. Monetary donations will be forwarded to Church World Service, which distributes blankets worldwide to refugees and victims of disasters. A $5 donation is enough to buy one blanket for those without. Blanket receptacles will be placed at various locations on the SU and SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry campuses. Sites include the Alibrandi Catholic Center, ESF’s Moon Library, Bray Rotunda in ESF’s Bray Hall, the Center for Public and Community Service in the Schine Student Center, the College of Nursing, the School of Social Work and the Martin Luther King Jr. Library in Sims Hall, the Goldstein Student Center on South Campus, the Hall of Languages, Kimmel Food Court, Manley Field House, the Hendricks Chapel Noble Room, the Tennity Ice Skating Pavilion, Syracuse Stage and campus residence halls.  This year, the SU women’s basketball team will sponsor its first Share the Warmth Collection Days during a series of three home games in February. Fans are invited to bring blankets to the following games: SU vs. Notre Dame (Feb. 14, 7 p.m.), SU vs. Seton Hall (Feb. 17, 8 p.m.) and SU vs. Miami (Feb. 24, 2 p.m.). Monetary donations will also be accepted at the games. “We are thrilled to have such a large coalition of organizations supporting this effort,” says Colleen Locke, chair of the SOS Share the Warmth committee. “The organizations include undergraduate and graduate groups, secular and nonsecular groups, service organizations and honor societies. We also have more receptacle locations than ever before, which will enable more people from the surrounding community to take part in the blanket drive.”

This is the fifth year SOS has organized a Share the Warmth blanket drive. Last year, SOS distributed more than 300 blankets to Central New York service agencies, including Vera House, the Migrant Farmworkers Advocacy Group, the Samaritan Center, the Interreligious Council of Central New York Refugee Resettlement Program and the Salvation Army. More than $500 was sent to Church World Service to purchase blankets. During the year 2000, Church World Service provided blankets for families in three provinces in China whose homes were washed out by severe summer floods. The organization also distributed more than $1.7 million in blankets, self-help kits and other vital assistance to victims of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo. In addition to the women’s basketball team, organizations supporting the Share the Warmth drive are the Alibrandi Catholic Center, Alpha Omega Epsilon, Alpha Phi Omega, Baptist Campus Ministries, Canterbury, the Golden Key National Honor Society, the Graduate Catholic Community, Hendricks Chapel, Hillel, IPCM, the Jewish Graduate Organization, the Jewish Student Union, The Knothole, MAXPAC, the MBA Student Association, the Newman Association, SU’s Office of Residence Life, the Panhellenic Council, the Syracuse Indian Association, Syracuse Stage and SU’s Lutheran Student Association.  For more information about the Share the Warmth blanket drive, contact Colleen Locke at 443-7493 or via e-mail atcolocke@syr.edu