BY MATTHEW WIKFORS
SPECIAL TO PASCACK PRESS
MONTVALE, N.J.—An act of volunteerism became an act of spreading holiday cheer for Woodcliff Middle School students Nina Indugula, Astrid Velozo, and Avery Maloney. The girls collected more than 70 toys for Oasis — A Haven for Women and Children, a nonprofit in Paterson.
The organization, founded in 1997, carries out educational and social service programs that help women enter and succeed in the workforce and help children flourish academically.
It also operates a soup kitchen and provides emergency food, clothing, and social support to city residents in need.
Oasis has suspended its on-site volunteering program due to COVID-19, and encourages people to volunteer from home through fundraisers, collection drives, and purchasing restaurant meals for making grab-and-go lunches.
The toy drive, an act of kindness Haritha Indugula says is typical of the girls, was the first volunteer project the friends took on by themselves. All three families had wanted to help their daughters find something meaningful to do during the pandemic.
Indugula suggested Oasis, as she had experience supporting them. She works for KPMG in Montvale, and her office, along with the firm’s Short Hills and nearby New York offices, encourages its employees to volunteer at Oasis. KPMG has performed volunteer work with Oasis since 1997, the year Oasis was formed.
Proximity also played a role. The parents hoped that the toy drive would foster a joy of volunteering for their daughters, and “having something that’s close by so they can go there after COVID and build a relationship with a place where they can volunteer would be ideal,” Indugula told Pascack Press.
She also said she hoped that the girls could meet the people in charge of Oasis when dropping off the toys so they can build a connection with them for future volunteer opportunities.
Aside from arranging the toy drive with Oasis and driving over to their building to deliver the toys on Dec. 10, the parents left the toy drive details up to the girls. And the young ladies rose to the challenge.
According to Indugula, the girls reached out to their friends and family via social media to promote the campaign. They collected approximately 70 toys in short order.
“When I first heard we would do it ourselves, I was nervous. It was nerve-wracking, but once we started getting toys, I was excited,” Nina Indugula said.
Oasis Director of Development Laetitia Cairoli told Pascack Press the girls’ work and the donors’ generosity make a significant difference.
“We are a nonprofit and we rely entirely on private donations to make this happen. This Christmas, unfortunately, people are really suffering badly in Paterson, because Paterson is one of the poorest cities in New Jersey,” Cairoli said.
“Families there have been very hard hit by the pandemic because they have suffered unemployment at extraordinary rates, because for the most part they’re low-wage workers. They’re restaurant workers, they’re house cleaners, and those are the people that lost work in this pandemic,” she added.
This year—Dec. 18—Oasis is distributing toys to 450 of its clients.
“The women who come to our adult classes, we give them gifts for their children. And then we give gifts to the children who come to our afterschool programs, teens and young children, in K-6,” she said.
“We try to give children a wish list. We give them each a toy, a game, and an item of clothing,” she added.
“These are the same people we’re literally giving bags of food, we’re giving them hot lunches daily; these are families who really are struggling, and who have been struggling, but because of the pandemic they’re facing unemployment, they’re facing eviction, they’re facing hunger. So this is not going to be a good Christmas for these families except for what we can do to help,” she said.
Young volunteers at work
The biggest challenge Nina, Astrid, and Avery faced in running the drive was unexpected, but they discovered a solution by themselves.
“It was probably being able to get the word out,” Nina said. “We couldn’t spread the word in school”—they had planned to place flyers around the middle school, and were ready to go but couldn’t get school permission— “so we had to get more creative.”
They posted the flyers on Snapchat and Instagram, reaching potentially many more supporters.
Astrid told Pascack Press that her team didn’t have a specific goal to reach in terms of how many toys they collected. She said that they were just happy to pass along toys to the children Oasis serves.
“I feel that anything would have counted and made a child smile,” she said.
In line with the virtual promotion, collection for the toy drive was no-contact due to COVID. People dropped off new, unwrapped toys at their houses. The toys were then brought inside and sanitized.
The drop-off involved little contact with Oasis folks meeting the girls and their families outside the building.
Everything was done without seeing the faces of the donators or the people receiving them.
Despite the challenges, the girls said it was rewarding to hold the toy drive by themselves. Astrid and Avery volunteer at Family Promise in Ridgewood, an organization that provides shelter and support for families experiencing homelessness.
Astrid said her volunteer work involves working with families in the morning, taking care of children and helping the parents get ready to start their day. She said it felt different to be the one in charge of a volunteer project.
“It’s a really good experience, especially with what’s going on now,” she said in regard to COVID and the holiday season.
Asked for their reflections on the project, the girls wanted it known they thank their family, friends, and everyone who donated to the toy drive.
— Additional reporting by John Snyder