In honor of the holiday season, Missouri Southern partnered with KOAM and Salvation Army to host it’s annual Toy Drive. Students were encouraged to bring toy donations to a designated box located in the stairwell inside Plaster Hall. Donations started the week after Thanksgiving break and are projected to run until December 13th.
In the evening hours of November 30th, some of the collected toys were stolen from the donation box. This included 6 Barbie dolls, a Frozen doll, a five-pack of Hot Wheels, multiple stuffed animals, and multiple Tonka construction trucks.
“People are stealing from kids that don’t have anything,” says Dr. William Huffman, Professor of Accounting, “I think it’s just kinda the idea of taking it and stealing it…we call whoever did it a “Grinch.’”
The incident caused an upset across campus that alerted campus police. As of right now, there are no leads or suspects due to the lack of surveillance cameras in Plaster Hall. Chief-Of-Police, James Swift, says “one thing I hope we do going forward is to get those [boxes] in a more central location. There are some points where we collect [items] like Hearnes and stuff like that where they are more visible and easier to watch over.”
With it being the season of giving, Dr. Huffman questions why some people think it’s the season of stealing.
“I guess I would want to ask [the “Grinch”], why they feel like they needed to steal from kids that don’t have anything. It’s a very low and a bad thing to do,” Dr. Huffman said.
In the future, the box will be locked in the Dean of Business’ office every night to prevent further attacks.
This event was supposed to serve a simple and easy community service project that all of Missouri Southern could participate in.
“Everyone should give back to the community that is able to do so…this is one way that we’re trying to teach our students to give back,” Dr. Huffman said.
For the toy drive, it is still in full swing until December 13th. Huffman still hopes to see more donations to not only replace the stolen toys but he hopes to see even more than before.
And for the “Grinch” responsible, Dr. Huffman requests that the toys be returned, and if they could throw in a couple of extra toys, it could get them back on the nice list. So their hearts can grow three sizes bigger, just like the Grinch.
