Lone Star College-CyFair staff and students finished the fall semester spreading holiday cheer as they helped families in need with toy, food and blanket drives.

Efforts benefitting Cypress Assistance Ministries included the College Relations Office’s annual Angel Tree, which collected enough toys and gifts to help fulfill holiday wish lists for 75 children as well as the Science and Kinesiology departments’ collection of more than 3,000 food items.

Approximately 100 canned goods were delivered to the Cy-Fair Helping Hands food pantry and 300 items to the Houston Food Bank thanks to members of the Student Nursing Association and Islamic Student Organization, respectively.

Other student organizations - CRU, X-Presate, Men of Honor, Catholic Student Union, Criminal Justice Club, Student Government Association, Science and Engineering Club, Humanitarian Connection and the Honors College – teamed up and collected more than 250 toys for an HZM ministries program benefiting youth from broken homes and single parents. An additional 30 toys were donated to Student Life’s Toys for Tots collection benefitting the Marine Corp Reserves.

Helping keep Houston’s homeless warm, the EMS department collected more than 100 items in a blanket and coat drive, while Baptist Student Ministry students participated in some Second Baptist events, including a fleece blanket drive as part of the Underground Ministries Christmas Extravaganza.

In addition, LSC-CyFair’s deans recently formalized a new partnership with Thornton Middle School in Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District’s Adopt-a-School program. While the partnership efforts officially launch in January, a holiday gift drive for middle school students (as part of a good behavior incentive) kicked off the commitment to Thornton.

For information on LSC-CyFair, go to LoneStar.edu/cyfair.