4A NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2007
TOY DRIVE
Center plans party despite delayed toys
BY ERIN SOMMER
esommer@kansan.com
The Center for Community Outreach is hoping to gather 1,000 toys Thursday in a toy drive for the Center's annual holiday party.
The center generally receives large toy donations from NBCs "The Today Show", but a change in the show's donation program has left the center without enough toys for the 1,200 children from the Boys and Girls Club of Lawrence that will be attending the party.
Kelli Stout, Derby senior and codirector of the Center, said that the center had received toys from "The today Show" for the past 9 years and each year the toys have arrived the first week of December, but she said that this year the center was told that it probably won't get the toys until January.
The holiday party is scheduled for Dec. 5.
"The kids and the parents expect that they'll get something." Stout said. "Even if they just get a $5 gift, it's something."
Candace Hogue, Overland Park senior and co-coordinator of Mentors in the Lives of Children, a program run by the center which is largely involved with the holiday party, said that the center has already held toy drives and collected about 200 toys, but still needs about 1.000.
"(The toy drives) have been slight-
successful, but not compared to what were used to "Hogue said.
Janet Murphy, executive director of the Boys and Girls Club of Lawrence, said that children from the Boys and Girls club have been attending the holiday party for six years
donations
What to give. The center said it will accept any unwrapped books and toys that aren't dangerous. It will also accept monetary donations. The toys will be inspected by the Center after they are donated.
Center for Community Outreach holiday party toy drive
Where: The 4th floor of the Kansas Union
When: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m
How much is needed: The Center currently has about 200 toys and about 1,200 children are expected to attend the holiday party. The Center would like to give one toy to each child.
Hogue said that the party included crafts, games and cookie decorating for the children, as well as a visit from Santa Claus.
She said that several student groups, including the Asian Student Union and Hillel, a Jewish service organization, also participated in the party to teach children about how the holidays are celebrated in different
cultures.
Murphy said that the children at the Boys and Girls Club got excited about visiting the University and having the opportunity to sit on Santa's lap. T. he
"It's kind of a tradition," Murphy said. "The kids expect that there will be this holiday party."
I he toy drive is
Several student groups, including the Asian Student Union and Hillel, a Jewish service organization, also participate in the party to teach children about different holidays.
Murphy said that 65 percent of the children who attended the Boys and Girls Club come from low-income families.
Thursday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the 4th floor of the Kansas Union. The center is looking for any unwrapped books or toys that are not dangerous to children. The center will also accept monetary donations.
- Edited by Rachael Gray
》SUA
Students can help grant wishes
Andrew Ford, Kansas City, Mo., senior, takes a look at request cards on the Salvation Army Angel Giving Tree inside the Kansas Union on Tuesday afternoon. Each card has a number that corresponds with a child that shares whether they are a boy or girl, their age, and what they would like for Christmas.
BY KATE AUGUST
kaugust@ku.edu
Andrew Wacker/KANSAN
As the holidays near, people begin to stress about how much shopping time is left and where they can go to get the best bargain. Meanwhile, numerous children will wake up on Christmas morning to empty stockings and no presents under their Christmas tree—if they have a tree at all. The University of Kansas provides an opportunity through Winter Wishes for anyone to make the holidays a brighter season for these children.
The Winter Wishes program, administered at the University by Student Union Activities in conjunction with the Salvation Army, began November 12 and will end Thursday, December 6.
The program sets up trees in numerous locations around campus, with the most noteworthy being in the Kansas and Burge Unions. Each tree has snowmen hung from its branches that represent children whose parents will be unable to afford Christmas presents. Students who wish to participate in the program can "adopt" a snowman.
SUA Special Events Coordinator Lauren Lakebrink said SUA was excited to continue to have the opportunity to provide gifts to the less fortunate children of Douglas County and that the organization had worked hard to make donating safe for students.
Throughout the past couple of weeks, Jones said she had tried to convince others to get involved. But she said she didn't want people to participate only for their image, but because they really wanted to make a difference.
The Christmas lists of children are printed on each snowman. After purchasing a gift, students are to return the present to the SUA box office. Lakebrink said gifts should cost around $25 and should be turned in unwrapped.
Lakebrink said that a student could pick a snowman off of a tree at any location on campus. Then the student can rip off the code at the bottom. The student records the number in the notebook that
"It's an opportunity to make a child's Christmas a real Christmas," she said. "A chance for you to put a smile on someone's face that probably wouldn't have been there in the first place."
Tyesha Jones, Kansas City, Kan. freshman, SUA Special Events committee, said not only did she help set up the event, but she also bought a
is next to the tree. The code indicates which child the gift is for and what gift the child has requested. Students put the snowman back on the tree when they are done.
Jones said she felt a deeper connection to this cause than most
gift for a child.
causes. As a first generation college student, she learned at a young age that not every child gets lots of Christmas presents.
"I picked a child that wasn't asking for much. That way, I can surprise her and make the day really special," she said.
For more information concerning Winter Wishes, contact Lauren Lakebrink, head of SUA Special Events, at (785) 864-2432.
INTERNATIONAL
Edited by Rachael Gray
'Urban guerrillas'join rioting French youth Unrest in poor areas grows more violent with use of firearms
ASSOCIATED PRESS
VILLIERS-LE-BEL, France — Police reinforcements streamed into the tough suburbs north of Paris on Tuesday after a second night of rioting by bands of youths who have burned cars and buildings and — in an ominous turn — shot at officers.
A senior police union official warned that "urban guerrillas" had joined the unrest, saying the violence was worse than during three weeks of rioting that raged around French cities in 2005, when firearms were rarely used. More than 80 officers were reported injured overnight.
The violence presented new President Nicolas Sarkozy with a stern test. And it showed that anger still smolders in France's poor neighborhoods, where many Arabs, blacks and other minorities live largely isolated from the rest of society.
Residents claimed the officers left the scene without helping the teenage boys. Authorities cast doubt on the claim, but said they were investigating.
Rioting and arson erupted Sunday night, with youths attacking a police station. The violence worsened Monday night as it spread from Villiers-le-Bel to other impoverished suburbs north of the French capital. Rioters burned a library, a nursery school and a car dealership and tried to set some buildings on fire by crashing burning cars into them.
The trigger was the deaths Sunday of two minority teens when their motorscooter collided with a police car in Villiers-le-Bel, a blue-collar town on Paris's northern edge.
One rioter with a shotgun "was firing off two shots, reloading in a stairwell, coming back out — boom, boom — and firing again," said Gilles Wiart, No. 2 official in the SGP-FO police union.
More police moved in Tuesday trying to prevent a third night of rioting, as officials sought to keep the upheaval from spreading to other impoverished areas as happened two years ago.
Youths, many of them Arab and black children of immigrants, again appeared to be lashing out at police and other targets seen to represent a French establishment they feel has
Patrice Ribeiro of the Synergie police union said rioters this time included "genuine urban guerrillas", saying the use of firearms — hunting shotguns so far — had added a dangerous dimension.
Police said 82 officers were injured Monday night, 10 of them by buckshot and pellets. Four were seriously wounded, the force said. Police unions said 30 officers were struck by buckshot.
"I don't think it's an ethnic problem," Wiart said. "Most of all it is youths who reject all state authority. They attack firefighters, everything that represents the state."
Suspicion of the police runs hgn among people in the drab housing project where the two teenagers died in the crash. The boys were identified in French media only by their first names, Lakhami, 16, and Mouhsin, 15.
left them behind.
Despite decades of problems and heavy state investments to improve housing and create jobs, the depressed projects that ring Patis are a world apart from the tourist attractions of the capital. Police speak of no-go zones where they and firefighters fear to patrol.
There have long been tensions between France's largely white police force and the ethnic minorities trapped in poor neighborhoods.
"The problem of bad relations between the police and minorities is underestimated," said criminologist Sebastian Roche.
Sarkozy was interior minister, in charge of police, during the riots of 2005 and took a hard line against the violence. He angered many in housing projects when he called delinquents there "scum."
Sarkozy, speaking from China, appealed for calm and called a security meeting with his Cabinet ministers for Wednesday on his return home.
The roiting youths "want Sarkozy — they want him to come and explain" what happened to the two teenage boys, said Linda Beddar, a 40-year-old mother of three
in Villiers-le-Bel. Beddar woke
tuesday to find the library across
from her house a burned-out shell.
The violence two years ago also started in the suburbs of northern Paris, when two teens were electrocuted in a power substation while hiding from police. The government is keen to keep the new violence from spreading.
"We will not let go. We will fight with all the force the nation is capable of," Prime Minister Francois Fillon told firefighters in Villiers-le-Bel.
Fillon spoke with a firefighter who was shot by rioters and handled the bullet that was extracted from the man's arm.
In Villiers-le-Bel, arsonists set fire to the municipal library and burned books littered its floor Tuesday. Shops and businesses were also attacked, and more than 70 vehicles were torched, authorities said.
Rioters even rammed burning cars into buildings, trying to set the structures on fire, authorities said. Police reported six arrests.
Several hundred youths organized in small groups led the rioting in Villiers-le-Bel, and incidents were also reported in five other towns north of Paris, the regional government reported.
It refused to give specific figures on injuries among the police, rioters or other civilians, or the numbers of cars and buildings set on fire, saying it feared that doing so would encourage youths to try to wound more officers and destroy more property.
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