Volunteer Opportunities: Urban Humanitarian Projects

By: Sibyl Cherian, Pharm.D. Candidate c/o 2013

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Last year’s piece on “Carrying the Vincentian Torch” featured the endeavors of the Urban Humanitarian Project (UHP) in order to raise money for their multiple annual charity projects. Since then, the organization has grown and strived to new heights to reach the community around them.

2012 Urban Santa Project

Over the past 3 years, Urban Santa project has hand-delivered toys to over 1,300 underprivileged children. This year, in an effort to promote literacy in urban communities, the project is moving in a new direction. “Santa and his elves” will be delivering age appropriate books to children living in various local charity organizations. During each delivery, Santa will read a story to the children and encourage them to continue to read through the year. Each book a child receives will include a stamped postcard where the child can write about the book he or she reads and send it back to the “North Pole.” The Urban Santa team will monitor the postcards they receive and once they receive a postcard from a child, the Urban Santa team will send another book to the child. As long as the children continue to read and write about what they read, they can receive books throughout the year.

Urban Santa has decided to form teams in order to make sure they can reach the multiple organizations in various locations. Team Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen and Rudolph will be promoting literacy during the holidays throughout New York, New Jersey, Florida, Canada and even Haiti.

For a complete list of the teams and locations, please visit www.urbansantaproject.org. Get into the holiday spirit by joining a team!

If you are interested in organizing a book drive or donating old or new books, please contact sibyl.cherian@gmail.com.