SNA Toy Drive

The Student Nurse Association holds a number of fundraising events throughout the year to raise money. But this holiday season, the SNA is sponsoring a toy drive for children in foster care through the Center for Human Development (CHD). While many hands are important to the success of the drive, the idea originated with senior nursing student Benjamin Gonzalez as a way to give back and his fellow nursing students embraced the idea.

Born and raised in Springfield, Ben himself was a child in foster care from the time he was 14 years old until he turned 18. When Ben’s mother struggled with a substance abuse problem and his father was too elderly to care for him, he found a loving foster home through CHD. In addition to his foster family, he credits CHD with helping him achieve all his goals in high school. “They even paid for me to get a driver’s license”, recalls Ben. “They wanted me to do well and be successful.”

CHD enthusiastically welcomed the SNA’s toy drive efforts and has provided considerable assistance in identifying the needs of children in foster care, trying to ensure each child receives that one special gift asked for this holiday season.

The response has been very generous. On the first day of the drive, a small white tree in the lobby of Courniotes Hall had 30 gift tags with a child’s name, age, and gift request on or near it. Within no time, all cards were taken by students and staff who wanted to help. Ben requested 50 more cards from CHD. A bigger tree was donated to hold the plethora of tags. There are still gift tags waiting. Each one provides the name of the child and the modest gift he or she hopes to receive. Some belong to older children who often go unnoticed. Who knows, that older child may just turn out to be like Ben, a teenager whose life was turned around by people who care.

Ben lavishes praise on all those past and present who help to make good things happen for him and is exceedingly humble in his contribution to the toy drive and to his own success. But he deserves a pat on the back for his perseverance and dedication. Ben works full time nights at Baystate Medical Center as a patient care tech and monitor tech so that he can go to school full time during the day. He’s set to graduate in May and plans to enter the workforce immediately as a med-surge acute care nurse. Within a year, Ben says he’ll apply to graduate school to work toward his MSN. “My ultimate goal is to be a nurse manager.”

Along with his SNA colleagues, Ben is paying it forward by helping other children who are where he was just a few years ago. Gift tags are available on the tree in the Courniotes Hall lobby. Personal care items are also needed including diapers, wipes and other small toiletries for children who arrive in foster care with nothing.

If you would like to brighten the holiday for a child, your donation of an unwrapped present or personal care products will be gratefully accepted in Courniotes Hall, rooms 141 or 142 through December 5.

Fostering generosity.