One of the things that the Honors Program does each semester is a service event that is run by honors students. This semester’s service event was Toys for Tots. Toys for Tots is a fundraiser that collects toys for less fortunate children. Honors t-shirts were sold in order to raise money to buy the toys. Around $280 was raised from selling shirts. On Sunday, November 26 some honors students got together to go toy shopping. Before going toy shopping, everyone met up in the campus center where which toy store we were going to was discussed. Since some students did not have cars on campus, everyone who had a car ended up carpooling with the students who did not have a car, on their way to Toys“R”Us. On the way to Toys“R”Us one car was following the other, since not many people knew where the store was located.

Upon getting to Toys“R”Us, all the students met up at the front entrance of the store to discuss what needed to be done. Also, people were split into groups of 3 and were assigned age groups of kids that the toys needed to be for. For example, one group was assigned infants while another group was assigned 12 to 13-year-olds. Each group was told that they could spend approximately $45 dollars to get high quality, age-appropriate toys for the age group they were assigned. Everyone split up into their groups and went to go search for some toys. After everyone picked out the toys, everyone met at the front of the store, where all the toys were organized and taken a picture of. Also, a picture of the students that went to the shopping was taken. One of the things that many people discovered during this trip was the fact that toy shopping is expensive since most people got 3 large toys for around $45 to $50. Then all the toys were ringed up altogether when it was discovered that the bill was higher than the amount of money that was raised. Thankfully, the cashier decided to provide a 15% off coupon that brought the total down to the amount that could be covered by the money raised. Everyone drove back to Stockton, where all the toys that were bought were put into the Toys for Tots boxes that are around campus.