Event Recap - 2021 Mother’s Day Toiletry Drive

Photo of Life Haven Mother's Day Toiletry Drive Donations
May 12, 2021

We did it!!!! The Yale Latino Networking Group in collaboration with the New Haven Fire Department, and with the generous support of Yale’s 8 affinity groups, Office of Diversity & Inclusion, Yale Police Department, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, and Yale Cancer Center for Screening & Prevention, have completed our 5th Annual Mother’s Day Toiletry Drive.  We surpassed our goal of 100 filled bags this Mother’s Day by hand delivering over 200 toiletry filled gift bags and 12 gift baskets.  This was all possible after a month of collecting toiletries from toothbrushes to slippers, nail polish, bath bombs, and robes, as well as monetary donations from Yale’s affinity groups and employees. On the morning of Thursday, May 6th, we filled cars and a Yale Police Department vehicle to the top with donations as we started the Mother’s Day gift brigade. Starting with the APT Foundation, Kinship Program, New Reach, Life Haven, and Cornell Scott – Hill Health Center, and ending with some more personal donations to mother’s in New Haven who have a relationship with the Yale Police Department and New Haven Fire Department through recent tragic events.  The mothers that have received our bags are straddling the lines of poverty with little to no assistance, many of them expressed the feeling of being “forgotten about”. The reactions and text messages from our small gesture have been overwhelming and we look forward to next year’s event. Thank you to everyone that has participated in this year’s drive. Without your generosity and unselfish determination to help those around you, this wouldn’t have been possible. -Tanya Colón, Jose DeJesus, Lt. Meade, Martha Cedeno-Ross, and Katherine Viera 

Additional photos can be found at: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=YaleLatinoGroup&set=a.4091180…