ESU Alumni Come Back To Campus To Help Residence Hall Students Brighten Holiday Season For Those Less Fortunate

Leslie Frishberg, graduate assistant in ESU's Laurel Hall, and Stephanie Peterson, a 2007 graduate with a degree in athletic training, are pictured with some of the toys collected in their residence hall's Toys for Tots box. The donated items this year have a special significance because they were all donated by Peterson and Amanda Funk, both former Laurel Hall residents who graduated last May.

Since their first year as students at ESU, Peterson, of Ridgewood, N.J., and Funk of Doylestown, Pa., have been devoting one Saturday of every December to shopping and filling Laurel Hall's Toys for Tots box . Peterson and Funk made their annual journey to Wal-Mart using their personal donation of $260 and other funds collected from current Laurel residents to purchase toys for all ages. They bought everything from teddy bears and Barbie dolls, to footballs and card games. "If we think a child will like it, we buy it," added Peterson.

Frishberg said the toys will be picked up soon by the Marine Corps. Reserve and then distributed nationwide.