[box]Antigone Curis, president of the Quinnipiac University Criminal Law Society, center, smiles with Shannon Haggerty, a shelter case manager, left, and Nadya Zawrocki, a resident support staff member, both of the Umbrella Center for Domestic Violence Services. Behind them is a van full of donations Curis collected for children at the shelter. Each child will receive two gifts from Quinnipiac law students this Christmas.[/box]
Students in the Criminal Law Society at the Quinnipiac University School of Law donated children’s toys to The Umbrella Center for Domestic Violence Services, a program by BHcare.
Antigone Curis, president of the Criminal Law Society, collected the donations from students and professors over two weeks.
Shannon Haggerty, a shelter case manager, and Nadya Zawrocki, a resident support staff member, accepted the donations on behalf of the center. The shelters house children up to the age of 18. The toys donated will go to the 16 children under the age of 14. Each child will receive two gifts.
“These gifts are for all of the children in our center. Every year around the holidays, we try to collect what we can to make the children feel at home,” said Zawrocki.
“We wanted to take this opportunity to help the children who are the victims of domestic abuse,” said Curis.
Quinnipiac University and the Umbrella Center for Domestic Violence Services have an ongoing partnership. This is the first year the Criminal Law Society has made contributions to the center.
BHcare is a state-licensed, non-profit behavioral health care provider serving the Lower Naugatuck Valley, Greater New Haven and shoreline communities. For more than 30 years, BHcare – through its founding organizations, Birmingham Group Health Services and Harbor Health Services – has been providing hope and help for individuals, families and children affected by mental illness, domestic violence and substance abuse.