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Sub for Santa meets goal despite increase in families

For the sixth year in a row, Utah State University’s Access and Diversity Center successfully matched all families in its Sub for Santa program with donors, despite an increase in families this year.

Pairing each family with a donor, however, did not come without some difficulty. Twenty-eight families solicited help from the center this year, which is six more families than the center helped last year. The increase was “quite a bit more,” according to Kooper Felter, a USU student and worker in the center who works specifically with the Sub for Santa program.

Noelle Wilson, the Access and Diversity Center’s Multicultural Program Coordinator, said just last week the office had to come together to solicit the help of donors to meet the demand.

“We rallied again as staff,” she said. “We just had so many families coming in.”

Prior to this week, the center only had seven donors lined up for the 28 families in the program. As of Tuesday, the center had been able to garner the help of five additional donors. Wilson said these 13 donors are enough to serve all the families and then some—two additional families, to be exact.

Children in the Sub for Santa program fill out both need and wish lists. The program aims to provide as many items on each child’s need list as it can, making the wish lists secondary. With additional donors, like the center has this year, Wilson said the program tries to make sure every child—on top of having their need list fulfilled—receives at least one item on their wish list.

The center’s Sub for Santa program is one of a kind in Cache Valley because it specifically serves USU families. Wilson said any in-need undergraduate, graduate, international and non-traditional student families are eligible for the program. On the whole, she added, graduate and international student families are those who most often receive help.

No matter who the students and families are, Wilson said, the program is a chance for her and the USU community to connect with them.

It’s fun to match [the families with donors] and see the process go through,” she said. “Typing up their wish list is kind of cool; it connects us to them even though we don’t know these families.”

Felter, the student who works with the Sub for Santa program, said he enjoys working with the program and seeing the families it helps. When he began working at the center, he said, he found the Sub for Santa program and knew it was something he wanted to work with. He now processes paperwork, helps match families with donors and even shops for the Sub for Santa program families when donors are unable to find time to do the actual shopping.

“I saw the need for Sub for Santa,” he said. “I was really passionate about it and jumped on board.”

At present, the center has all families covered, but sometimes families come to the program late in emergency situations, Johnson said. USU’s Dining Services, however, helps this problem by doing auctions that help to provide funds for the Sub for Santa program. Dining Services is a “huge help,” she said, and part of the reason the center has been able to serve all the families that apply to the program.

With donors and families matched, all that’s left to do for the center is collect donations, make a few shopping trips and deliver the items to families in the program. Once done, the center will have made the holidays a little brighter—yet again—for in-need aggie families.

—jordan.floyd@aggiemail.usu.edu