The University’s chapter of Hillel hosted nearly fifty children, their families, volunteers and one jolly, Jewish Santa Claus at Memorial Ballroom on Sunday.

Stanley Barnes reads a donated book from Hillel with his daughter. SARAH GIARRATANA/Staff

As the only Hillel in the country to own a Santa suit, Hillel Director Joel Marcovitch said his students break out the suit every year for Uga’s Party — one of their biggest philanthropy events that distributes toys and books to low-income families in the Athens area.

He said that the idea to host the event, which offers parents a chance to pick up gifts for free and kids a chance to play games with volunteers, is to meet the need of local families trying to afford presents during the holiday season.

“Hillel students at the time saw that there was a critical need in the area for low income families to be able to celebrate the holidays,” he said. “And usually, there’s a toy drive that happens where you give the toys to an organization, but you never really see where they go. So they wanted to have a little bit more an impact in peoples’ lives and more of a connection.”

Parents like Stanley Barnes, who brought his four children to the event, said his children really enjoyed being able to connect with the student volunteers.

“I’ve been here all my life and the students here today are showing how much love they have for all of the kids and its very nice,” he said. “And they are so humble with the kids and easygoing with all of the kids. I haven’t seen any of the kids act up once since they’ve been here. It’s been real nice.”

Joseph Summer, a junior management information systems major from Gainesville, spent the afternoon manning the bowling booth and distributing prizes.

“I’m excited about seeing the kids, but another thing that’s fun is there’s a lot of student volunteers,” he said. “It’s really fun to work with them and bring joy to these underprivileged kids who wouldn’t otherwise have presents.”

Summer, who takes over as Hillel president next semester — a position currently held by senior child and family development major Mara Price — said he also looks forward to continue expanding the event in the future.

“We had a phone call from an organization that has 400 kids in a similar economic climate and she asked us whether or not we could take 400 kids and we just can’t,” Marcovitch said. “Memorial Hall just won’t fit and we only have around 200 toys. Athens-Clarke County is in need of things like this and the Jewish community is leading the way, as far as on campus, to make sure the kids have a smile on their face at this time and parents have some respite.”

Marcovitch said he hopes to grow the event to be able to accommodate more than 400 children next year.

Children who did attend the event walked away with a stuffed animal, book and toy ­— many of which were learning toys that Marcovitch hoped would help kids with skills like reading or logic.

Abrakidabra, a local online toy company, donated learning toys and Amy’s Party, a similar event created 16 years ago for a bat mitzvah project, donated their extra toys to Hillel. Between the groups and personal donations, they ended up with well over 200 wrapped toys.

As for Santa, Marcovitch said he’s more of a holiday symbol than anything and they are happy to bring their suit for the party.

“We realize that we’re meeting the needs of a community who on a whole are Christian and they do have Christian traditions at this time of year. And Santa, as we heard from the past, is really great — parent’s really like it,” he said. “It’s important to them. For us, as Jews, it’s Chanukah Harry, Santa or however you want to dress it up. The important thing is it’s a season of goodwill and giving from all different religions. Whether it’s Chanukah, Kwanzaa or Christmas. And we’re very proud we do this event. It’s an immense about of work.”

Looking to donate?
Bring an unwrapped toy to the Hillel house at 1155 S. Milledge Avenue.