Even in time of endless coursework and exhausting recruitment activities, LBS found the time to make some kids happy for the holidays season by organising their annual toy drive for children in need in London’s Marylebone neighbourhood.
The school reports that this year LBS students, professors and staff gathered more than 400 presents which they are going to donate to local kids in need.
Parts of the Marylebone neighbourhood are known for their high levels of crime, unemployment and poverty which make this area one of the most deprived ones in England. Aware of this fact, the LBS’s Community Action Group, supported by the Student Volunteering Club, organised a toy drive for the first time in 2009. And seven years after launching this charitable campaign the LBS students have given away more than 3,000 toys to children in need.
Tina Clark, chair of the LBS Community Action Group, says about the campaign:
One of the biggest things preventing people from volunteering is lack of time. That’s the beauty of the toy drive; it’s such a relatively simple way for a busy person to contribute, and when multiplied many times over, it makes quite an impact.
Gathered by this noble cause, each winter LBS students, faculty and staff, buy hundreds of gifts for children in need, and not only for those living in deprived areas like Marylebone, but also for kids being treated at St. Mary’s Hospital Paediatric Intensive Care Unit. The donated gifts are distributed to local children—ranging in age from birth to 12—at multiple sites.
The example of LBS comes to show us that if there is a desire to help others you can always find a way and time to do that. Want to make someone happy during the holidays?
Source: London Business School
