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December 12, 2003|Volume 32, Number 14|Five-Week Issue



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Charla Nich, a statistician in the Department of Psychiatry's Substance Abuse Treatment Unit, and Carolyn Levinson Miller, a biostatistician, are among the staff members who have "adopted" a family for the holidays. They are shown here with some of the gifts collected last year.



Yale department adds a personal
touch to holiday giving

Instead of opening presents from each other at their holiday party, the members of one Yale department wrap their gifts for a local family facing a not-so-merry Christmas.

In what has become a Yuletide tradition, researchers in the Substance Abuse Treatment Unit of the Department of Psychiatry each year play Santa to a family they "adopt" through Christian Community Action (CCA), a local nonprofit organization that provides emergency and transitional housing, as well as other services, to those in need.

The practice began about 12 years ago, when the staff members decided to stop giving gifts to each other in exchange for something more meaningful, explains statistician Charla Nich, who helps in the yearly effort which is coordinated by research associate Joanne Corvino.

"We learned about CCA when our group took part in a Thanksgiving food drive," says Nich. "We thought it would be nice to get involved in something a little more personal."

Using information provided by the CCA, "we put up a list of the family members' ages, sizes and interests," explains Nich. "Then people sign up for specific gifts." Often, the volunteers are so taken with the spirit of giving that they end up making additional purchases for their chosen family member. "Sometimes you can't stop yourself," she says.

In fact, so popular has the concept become that people from other buildings come over as soon as the list is posted to sign up, she adds. Between the core members of the research team -- which is headed by Kathleen Carroll, professor of psychiatry -- and the other volunteers, about 15 individuals take part annually.

Over the years, the research team has adopted "all kinds" of families, says Nich. Once it was four small boys and their parents, who had just moved into their first apartment from transitional housing. Another year, it was a mother with two young children -- a toddler daughter and a son in first grade "who only wanted a desk to do his homework on," she notes. Last year's adopted family was a mother with three teenagers, "all of whom wanted black sweatshirts," Nich recalls. This year's family is still living in emergency housing.

As the team members wrap their purchases at their holiday party, their children get into the spirit of the project by making decorative gift tags and ornaments to adorn the adopted family's Christmas tree.

The researchers arrange to deliver the presents, along with grocery store gift certificates, while the family's children are away -- the better to preserve the illusion of Santa Claus, notes Nich.

These visits are the most moving part of the whole experience, she says. "We always wind up in tears."

Expressing her hope that other departments around campus consider taking part in similar holiday giving programs, Nich adds, "In these times of war and despair, it is a great feeling to be able to work with such a good group of people and to feel the gift of Christmas by helping our neighbors."

-- By LuAnn Bishop


T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

John Pepper named V.P. for Finance & Administration

Yale expands Homebuyer Program

Professorship honors former Yale president

Students win Rhodes, Marshall Scholarships

Roland Betts named Corporation's senior fellow

ENDOWED PROFESSORSHIPS

DeVane Lectures to investigate meanings of keywords

Yale is site of state's first high-efficiency fuel cell power plant

Yale department adds a personal touch to holiday giving

Artworks created in captivity donated to Yale Art Gallery

Symposium to explore issues of 'space and race'

Journalists offer perspectives on global events, world leaders

Scientists find oldest definitively male fossil

Group prenatal care benefits preterm infants, study shows

Studies say newer psychiatric medications not cost-effective


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