This year, MCB’s Annual Gift Drive is collecting winter coats in all children’s sizes, as well as kids’ socks, for the nonprofit Cradles to Crayons. Established in 2002, Cradles to Crayons’ mission is distributing clothes and other essentials to disadvantaged children in Boston and other cities. The MCB gift drive will begin on Tuesday, November 16 and will end on Friday, December 10.
Collection boxes will be set up in BioLounge near the BioLabs main entrance and in the Admin Lounge at 38 Oxford Street. Both collection boxes will have note cards available so that contributors can write personal notes to the recipients. (However, these notes should avoid religion-specific expressions like “Merry Christmas.”) Community members are all encouraged to chip in.
Winter coats are consistently among the items families request most often. The gift drive will accept new and nearly new winter coats in all children’s sizes (from newborn to adult medium), and Cradles to Crayons says that they especially need coats in kids sizes’ 10/12 (children’s L), 14/16 (adult S), and 18/20 (adult M).
The gift drive will also be accepting new pairs of socks and monetary donations. Anyone interested in making a financial donation to Cradles to Crayons should reach out to MCB Administrative Coordinator Kelsey Cox, who is managing the gift drive this year, at kecox@mcb.harvard.edu.
Cox says her experiences working with children for 15 years inspired her to partner with Cradles to Crayons. “What I learned is that children who were deemed ‘troublemakers’ or ‘uninterested’ were often acting out because they lacked basic support,” says Cox. “When you show care to a child, they respond by suddenly thriving in unexpected ways. What Cradles to Crayons does is remove the most basic obstacles children experiencing poverty face–by providing clothing to tackle all weather conditions, supplies to foster success in school, and books to inspire curiosity. Children are given more than objects; they are shown that other people care about them.”
Gift donations should be dropped off at the collection boxes in the BioLounge and the Admin Lounge by Friday, December 10. Please help ensure that local kids have a safe and warm winter!
