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December 15, 2020Capital Region BOCES Students Brighten the Holidays for those in The Schenectady City Mission
Capital Region BOCES students played the part of Santa’s elves recently, delivering a sleigh overflowing with toys to The City Mission in Schenectady.
The students — members of the SkillsUSA chapter on the Albany campus — collected toys in a full-sized sleigh on the Albany Campus since Thanksgiving. They also collected more than $1,300 in monetary donations – including a $600 donation from the BOCES Faculty Association – as well as the proceeds of the sale of face masks created by students in the Global Fashion program. Even more funds were raised by donations collected through the sale of coffee at the Campus Store. Students in the Retail and Office Services Program and their counterparts in the Special Education Division used the funds to purchase more toys and games for the youth of the City Mission.
Students said they enjoyed helping others, while some said the event had a special meaning to them.
“It was fun to help others,” said Hailey Jansson, a Retail student from Guilderland.
“It’s good a thing to be able to use the skills we learn to help others,” added Kelly Westervelt, a Global Fashion student from Shenendehowa who made numerous face masks that were sold to benefit the toy drive.
The Schenectady City Mission’s toy store assists hundreds of families each holiday season and BOCES students aided the effort not only by bringing in hundreds of games and toys, but by helping to sort and organize the toys at the mission.
“It’s an eye-opening and rewarding experience for some of the students,” said SkillsUSA advisor Deborah Toy, who oversaw the effort.
SkillsUSA is a national organization for career and technical education students that promotes personal and professional growth and offers them the opportunity to compete at the local, regional, state and national levels. Capital Region BOCES’ has chapters on all three of its campuses, providing opportunities for its more than 1,000 students to take part in the national organization while also learning in one of the more than two-dozen academic programs, ranging from engineering to automotive to nursing, offered to students.
