Winter Brings Charity at ICC

EAST PEORIA — The Central Illinois community has a long history of supporting charity works during the holiday season. Illinois Central College is a huge part of this community and continues to host events that give back to the community during this festive season.

Multiple student organizations have contributed to community outreach groups and to other charities by hosting events specifically to raise funds and awareness. The Student Government Association is one of those organizations.

SGA hosted the “Toys for Joy” event on November 13th. This formal banquet included a toy collection and a silent auction to raise money for the OSF Children’s Hospital and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Kiersten Gavin, 18, of Metamora was the SGA Senator and Committee Chair that planned the event.

“I originally came up with the idea for Toys for Joy when I was in Girls Scouts,” Gavin said.

She ran a blood drive in order to receive her Silver Award in Girl Scouts. Her idea was to replicate a similar kind of fundraiser at ICC but with one key difference.

“We wanted it on a larger scale this time and we knew we wanted to collect toys and money,” Gavin said.

Secretary of SGA Rachael DeLost, 20, of Peoria says that the event was a success.

“Overall we raised over $800 and there were about 25 toys and books donated,” DeLost said.

The Performing Arts Center is also getting into the generous spirit with two shows this holiday season that will also help give back to the community. One of these shows took place in November and donated toys to Toys for Tots. Trisha Bagby, 19, of Petersburg, a student worker at the PAC, said that the PAC’s goal is to connect arts with giving.

“We try and use different programs to relate to different Guest Artist performances,” Bagby said.

The Second City’s Nut-Cracking Holiday Revue was a holiday-themed show and seemed appropriate to pair with the spirit of giving gifts. The other show this season that will give back will be A Carpenters’ Christmas presented by Close to You. This event will be collecting donations to the Salvation Army.

When it comes to the main players in these community events, students are constantly advocating.

“The student workers at the PAC work really hard to promote and bring people to these events,” Bagby said. “We try our best to make sure the charity aspects of each event are evident.”

Bagby says that the free publicity given to the organizations is an awesome way for students to be aware and to get involved.

With a holiday season packed with opportunities for students to give back to their community, organizations are looking forward to future years of giving.

“Each event that SGA holds has all of its information saved for future years,” Gavin said. “If future students want to put on similar events, everything is ready for them to keep going,”

Gavin hopes that students in the future will use her ideas to continue to give back. DeLost is sure that if things continue, they will see greater success.

“I know that if we do it again, we could easily double the money that was raised,” DeLost said.