Page 4 - January 2017 final_Neat

It was a busy December of giving for Rutgers University and the Division of Institu- A
tional Planning and Operations. Not only did we have our own toy drive, coordinated by Bu
our Community Policing Unit in Newark, but our Facilities Operations group and our Ma- Decem
terial and Logistical Services group helped to facilitate
the distribution of toys and food for the needy. o
Giv
The Adopt-A-Family Campaign, which began in
2009, always gets support from Facilities to transport
collected items to the drop-off points.

Amanada Bialek of Rutgers Cooperative Extension
explained that each year, the Extension contacts local
social services agencies and asks for information on
their most in-need families. After receiving forms on
each of these, which contain information on preferenc-
es, clothing sizes, wish list items, etc., Bialek begins
a search for sponsors. “The majority of our sponsors
come from within Rutgers University,” she said in an
email. Sponsors can join as a department or as an in-
dividual. “The sponsor completes a sponsorship form,
and we begin the matching process,” Bialek explained.
“The sponsors have about a month to collect items for
their ‘adopted’ families until we begin our pick-ups in
December.”

That’s when Facilities Operations comes into play.
For two weeks in December, our Facilities team com-
pletes the pick-up and delivery of gifts for these fam-
ilies. Each morning, they pick up the donated items
to transport to a different social services
agency that same afternoon. The IPO Facili-
ties team is an important component of the
Adopt-A-Family initiative, and as evidenced
by the pictures, they enjoy being a part of
this Rutgers initiative. They work very hard
during these two weeks in December, and in
addition to what they do for Adopt-a-Family,
they also have to keep up with the normal
workload.

Bialek described the whole experience as
heart-warming. “We have received so much
generosity throughout Rutgers. People truly
go above and beyond when putting together
packages for their families. I know that the
families and agencies are so appreciative
and for many
families, this
program gets
them through
the season.”

4