MCC Students & Lowell Police Department Partner on Toy Drive

For students in her Fall 2022 Law, Justice and Society class, Heloisa DaCunha wanted to take on a Service-Learning project that gave back to the community. The Middlesex Community College Chair of Criminal and Social Justice reached out to the Lowell Police Department to partner on running a Toys for Tots toy drive for local families.

“The content of this particular class is to talk about social problems happening within society that could potentially generate deviant behavior,” DaCunha said. “We talk about poverty, homelessness, drug use, unemployment, inflation, education levels, and the gap that keeps widening between social classes. When I approached the police department, I knew there were many different service opportunities, but we wanted to help the community.”

Through the Lowell Police Department and their connection with social workers in Lowell Public Schools, the drive received wish lists from students from low-income families. MCC Criminal and Social Justice students set up three bins on the college’s campuses in Bedford and Lowell to collect donations.

Thanks to the students’ outreach, as well as the community’s generosity, the toy drive received thousands of donations, according to DaCunha. Not only did they fulfill every child’s wish list, but the drive had extra toys to donate to the House of Hope in Lowell.

“There is no better way to get in the Christmas spirit than being in a room full of thousands of toys, knowing how many kids will be happy because of it,” said Brad Walk, an MCC student from Westford. “I loved my experience in this community service project. The Lowell PD staff was so welcoming and appreciative of our help, and I loved every minute of volunteering.”

Once the donation period ended, students in the class went to the police station to sort through the toys and match them with each list. Through this collaboration, they were also able to interact and network with officers in the department.

“I learned the importance of community policing and how the police of a city can be community protectors and caregivers,” said Evan Maninos, an MCC student from Wilmington. “Opportunities to do projects like these – to work with departments and learn the community relations side of law enforcement – is an incentive to learn outside of the classroom and apply real life lessons to our studies.”

As the final part of the assignment, students reflected on their work on the Service-Learning project. This includes talking about how to avoid criminal behavior and make long lasting improvements in the community by addressing social problems, according to DaCunha.

“I learned the importance of helping other in need, as well as how hard the economy has been,” said Ashley Grigg, an MCC Student from Lowell. “It developed my critical thinking skills and helped with my experience in learning.”