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JMU community supports area nonprofits with 28th ‘Warm a Winter Wish’

HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) – For more than two decades, the James Madison University community has come together to give gifts to those in need during the holidays through its Warm a Winter Wish initiative.

The event takes place each fall before the winter break, with students, faculty and staff invited to take written “wishes” off of the tree in the University Recreation Center (UREC) on JMU’s campus, purchasing the item(s) on the paper and returning them to campus unwrapped. There was also an Amazon wish list available for those who could not physically make it to grab a wish but wanted to participate.

The three nonprofits who submit wishes for the tree are First Step: A Response to Domestic Violence, Mercy House and Brain Injury Connections of the Shenandoah Valley. Graduate student Shay Steinkirchner said there were 655 wishes from the nonprofits this year, which is one of the “biggest” totals the program has had.

Steinkirchner, along with other graduate students and staff members in UREC, plan the event each year, which ends with a “Wrapping Party.” The JMU Dukes are invited to enjoy pizza, music and holiday treats while wrapping up the gifts they donated. Brain Injury Connections received 200 of the 655 wishes.

“[Students] could be doing anything else — getting ready to go home, Christmas shopping, taking exams. Their time and their dedication to those in need is just mind-blowing, and we’re just so grateful to the students, the faculty, the staff, and everyone who is helping make our clients’ Christmases a little brighter this year,” BIC Executive Director Anne Fitzgerald said.

Another graduate student, Drew Smith, is from Charlotte, North Carolina. He said that although he is new to the Harrisonburg area, being able to help coordinate Warm a Winter Wish has made it him feel “at home” in the Friendly City.

“It is a tight-knit community within just Harrisonburg in general — whether it be JMU or just the city of Harrisonburg — and so it’s cool to be a part of it as someone who’s coming from outside of the community,” Smith said. “I just love being able to be a part of these different opportunities where I can give back to the place I’ve learned to love over the last year and a half.”

Warm a Winter Wish will return for its 29th year in 2025.

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