THE FLATS – After two weeks of collection at several Georgia Tech athletic events, the Georgia Tech Student-Athlete Advisory Board delivered the toys and monetary donations to the Atlanta Children’s Shelter on Monday. Tech collected just over 2,500 toys and over $6,000 in monetary donations for the shelter to help make this holiday season possible for several families.
For nearly 10 years, Georgia Tech has donated to the Holiday House event hosted by the Atlanta Children’s Shelter. The donations will be used by the shelter to provide over 200 homeless parents and over 500 children Christmas this year.
Collections were delivered to St. Luke’s Episcopal Church where the shelter will hold its annual Holiday House this week for parents of the children to “shop” for Christmas. The Atlanta Children’s Shelter serves families with children under the age of five. Over the course of the two week collection time, fans were asked to donate new, unwrapped toys.
“Georgia Tech Athletic Association has been supporting our Holiday House event for almost 10 years,” noted Sandy Holiday, Executive Director of the Atlanta Children’s Shelter. “Through the Athletic Association, you’re making an impact on hundreds of children. Last year, with your toys, we were able to have over 500 homeless children have a good Christmas. We expect even more this year because every single year Georgia Tech gets more and more generous with the toys. We are extremely lucky to have Tech as one of our community partners.”
The Michael Isenhour Toy Drive was founded by former men’s basketball player Michael Isenhour following the events of 9/11 in an effort to assist the families impacted. The toy drive began in 2001 as Isenhour was battling leukemia. The Georgia Tech Student- Athlete Advisory Board renamed it the Michael Isenhour Toy Drive to create an ongoing legacy to their fellow student-athlete, who lost his battle to cancer in 2002.
