CMUPD hosts toy drive for local tots

The Carnegie Mellon University Police Department collected kids toys on campus for its annual holiday drive, supporting children in need. **Arden Ryan/** News Editor

With the holiday season approaching, the Carnegie Mellon University Police Department (CMUPD) once again hosted its annual holiday toy drive. From Nov. 21 through Dec. 9, CMUPD collected new, unwrapped toys for kids at various drop-off locations throughout the Carnegie Mellon campus. This year’s toy drive will serve families in the Pittsburgh’s Hazelwood neighborhood. The Tartan spoke to Mark Villasenor, a university police sergeant, to learn more about CMUPD’s annual toy drive.

CMUPD has hosted its annual toy drive for many years, initially partnering with Toys for Tots and then, as of two years ago, with Play it Forward. Any toys gathered by the CMUPD toy drive were given to these organizations who then distributed them.

However, many officers in CMUPD longed for connection with the Pittsburgh community, something partnerships with Toys for Tots and Play it Forward could not offer.

This year, that’s going to change as CMU PD got together with Elizabeth Vaughan, associate dean of student affairs and director of the Office of Community Engagement and Leadership Development, and Chelsea Blackburn Cohen, senior manager of strategic initiatives and engagement, to find a way to connect with Pittsburgh residents.

Thus, CMU PD partnered with Hazelwood Cafe, a partnership facilitated by Cohen, to distribute toys on Dec. 9. CMU PD didn’t have any connections in the Hazelwood community until Cohen reached out to the Hazelwood Cafe, a business that was more than happy to have CMU PD do a toy drive there. “Even though we don’t patrol Hazelwood, which is in the City of Pittsburgh, we wanted to be a good community partner. We wanted to be good neighbors where Carnegie Mellon has a footprint now,” said Villasenor.

This partnership will allow CMU PD officers to distribute toys directly to families in need in the Hazelwood community instead of being handed off to a third-party organization, as it has been done in the past.

Starting at 8 a.m. today, CMU PD will gather the toys they’ve collected, place them in a shuttle bus, take a picture, and drive off to the Hazelwood community. “It just brings a smile, not only to those families, but it brings a satisfaction as a police officer that you’re helping somebody else in the community. It’s not always about enforcing laws, it is always about helping communities that you serve,” said Villasenor.

Though this is the first time CMU PD is partnering with Hazelwood Cafe, officers like Villasenor hope it will mark the beginning of a new holiday tradition. “Hopefully they will be a community partner, so every year, starting this year, we can always do it for the community.”

CMU PD is part of the Allegheny County Communities and Police Together, a group of law enforcement officers interested in community relations. “We do parades, we do National Night Out, we help other departments with Coffee with a Cop, there are toy runs, there are holiday shopping events, Camp Cadet is another thing. … That’s very rewarding for us to say, yes, we’re trying to bridge the community and the police department, not only here on campus, but outside of campus,” said Villasenor.

CMU PD also hosts a Citizens Police Academy, a six-week course open to students, faculty, and staff and held during the academic year. Individuals taking the course will learn patrolling techniques, crime and vehicle codes, duty and rights as a witness or victim, mental health, special investigation, drug and alcohol laws, self-defense, and de-escalation techniques. The program aims to educate the community about CMU PD’s role on campus, foster positive interactions, and dispel misconceptions about the CMU PD. They also offered a Scotty Strong Self-Defense program on Dec. 2 in which participants were taught essential self-defense techniques tailored to real-life situations they may find themselves in.

There is a lot of community outreach done by the CMU PD and many ways in which members of the CMU community can help out with the work they are doing. “If you are a student, faculty or staff, and if you wanted to give back and you wanted to do something rewarding, … even if it’s an Amazon gift card, or it’s a $10 toy, that goes a long way and will brighten up somebody’s holiday season,” Villasenor said. “It’s just rewarding to see that when a child gets something, maybe they haven’t gotten anything the last couple years for the holidays, this Christmas season.”