Men's Lacrosse Team's Holiday Magic Program Celebrates Fifth Year

Blue Jay Lacrosse Team Shares Gifts With Baltimore Area Children and Families

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The Blue Jays gather in the team locker room prior to the first stop on their 2008 Holiday Magic tour.

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Dec. 19, 2008

For the fifth consecutive year the Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse team embarked on its Holiday Magic program just before the end of the first semester. The Blue Jays spend a majority of the fall semester raising money, gathering toys, games, school supplies, clothing and other essentials and distribute these items to families and children throughout the Baltimore area in the early part of December.

Through the efforts of team members and the coaching staff the Blue Jays have raised over $50,000 in the last five years, including more than $30,000 in the last two years alone. They have used this money to purchase gifts, food and many other items for various shelters in the state of Maryland.

Visit the team's locker room after the middle of November and it resembles the North Pole as players and coaches spend a majority of their free time wrapping hundreds of gifts for distribution.

Among the team's initiatives in the five years of the program (these are just two of the many):

Johns Hopkins Tutorial Program
Johns Hopkins University sponsors a tutorial program for 120 children each semester who live in Baltimore City. The kids come to Hopkins once each week to receive one-on-one tutoring from 120 Johns Hopkins undergraduates. Many are from the poorest areas of the city, where crime and poverty are evident in the run-down housing they live in and the schools they attend.

Members of the team and the coaching staff gather with the kids in early December with each child receiving a gift bag that includes books and school supplies along with toys and games. Playing board games, drawing and reading with members of the team were among the highlights for the kids, who have been coming to Hopkins as part of this program since it was founded in 1958.

Marian House/The Meeting Ground
The Marian House is a transitional house for women that have been incarcerated or have a drug/alcohol problem and don't have the means to provide many of the necessities for their kids. The Blue Jays have supplied over 300 gift bags that included school supplies and at least one toy for kids in this house over the last two years.

The Meeting Ground is a homeless and transitional house located on a farm over an hour away from the Johns Hopkins campus (up near the Maryland-Delaware border) and has evolved into the team's signature house. The house is currently home to several families, including nearly 20 children, many of which wear old clothing and shoes with holes in them to school on a daily basis.

Each person in the house received, among other items, a new pair of shoes, sneakers or boots, socks, a hat, gloves and a sweatshirt. The kids in the house received a new outfit and pajamas, school supplies and several toys each. In the first year of the initiative, for the use of everyone in the house, the Blue Jays donated a 32-inch television, a DVD/VCR, two bikes and several board games. Each of the mothers received a special care package. In the last two years the team supplied several vacuum cleaners and steam cleaners and purchased a computer for the entire house.

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