Photo: Playing Santa
Posted January 13, 1999
"We've really gotten into this," says Sondra Jensen, director of administrative services at Housing & Dining Services. "It's so heartwarming to see the staff come together to help people in need."
The unit's efforts began four years ago, when Jensen started a monthly penny collection in her office for those in need at Christmas. It netted $300, with staff from the nearby parking office chipping in; Jensen received a battery-operated coin roller for Christmas to help her organize the proceeds.
The next year she enlisted the support of the entire Housing & Dining unit -- about 400 people -- to collect everything a family needed, including a Christmas dinner, to set up house after they had been burned out of their Oakland apartment. In 1997, Jensen's office raised money for gift baskets for home-bound seniors, filling requests for everything from underwear to stationery. Julia Sommer copy; Peg Skorpinksi photo.
From left, Housing & Dining Services staff Nancy Jurich, Sui Lin Cheong, Eddie Malone and Sondra Jensen take a break from wrapping gifts for delivery Dec. 18 to the Henry Robinson Multi-Service Center in Oakland. Their mountain of gifts included wrapped housewares, clothes and toys to help two families make the transition from an Oakland homeless shelter to their own homes.
January 13 - 19, 1999 (Volume 27, Number 19)
Copyright 1999, The Regents of the University of California.
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