Faculty, staff and students at the University of Missouri-Rolla donated five truckloads of canned goods and toys to the Greater Rolla Area Charitable Enterprise’s GRACE for Christmas program. The toys included 44 bicycles and 38 helmets purchased by the School of Engineering. Additional cash donations totaled more than $1,000.

The campuswide collection, which was organized by the UMR Staff Council, was held from Nov. 10 through Dec. 7 on campus.

Announcement of the GRACE collection sparked a competition between the mechanical and aerospace engineering department and the civil, architectural and environmental engineering department to raise money to purchase bicycles, says Vicki Gibbons, coordinator of student recruitment in the School of Engineering dean’s office. Dean Robert Mitchell then issued a safety challenge to the remaining departments to raise enough funds to buy a helmet to accompany each bike. Civil, architectural and environmental engineering won the bicycle challenge and basic engineering won the dean’s safety challenge, Gibbons says.

As a result, 44 bikes and 38 helmets were purchased and donated to GRACE.