Ten ASU families from each campus will be receiving gifts and food collected from the ASU Police for their first-ever food and toy drive this month.
University police have been involved in food drives in the past, but east campus police Commander Mark Roberts said: "We've decided, as a University police department, to combine the food and toy drive this year for the first time."
According to main campus Interim Commander of Police Alan Clark, "This is the first year we have done this on all three campuses. It was usually at main campus."
Roberts said, "We asked the resident assistants to provide a list of 10 families living on campus that would benefit from the help."
The families were asked what they needed, and then the toys were matched according to age and gender, Roberts said.
The RAs will notify the chosen families beforehand so that the police officers on duty can drop off the gifts and food items at a convenient time for each individual family.
The main source of help in this drive always has been the East College, but Roberts added that there "has always been an excellent response from the community here. Folks have always been generous."
At ASU East, collection boxes are located in the Health Sciences, Simulator, Technology and Classroom buildings for anyone interested in dropping off any food or toys. All items are collected daily.
Clark, who was once a firefighter in southern Arizona and traditionally collected toys for the holiday, said, "The drive started when radio personality W. Stephen Martin started a campaign to portray police officers in a more positive light" and to dispel the possible fear they might have instilled in children.
"At main campus, the families are selected based on whether they have had to go to the employee assistance program throughout the year," he said. "All food and toys go to families directly related to ASU."
Clark added that the College of Public Programs, the Justice Studies program, the Student Recreation Center and now the Greek system have helped out.
The drive gives the officers assigned to each community the opportunity to collect, wrap and hand-deliver bags of toys and food directly to the homes of the families they serve and protect.
The last pickup will be around Dec. 20 and will be distributed by Dec. 25.
Reach the reporter at erika.camardella@asu.edu.
