The snowman project

Among the students who participated, from left, Marianna Jolly, LaToya McLean, Fatima Arif, Kristopher Thompson, Charles White, Dana Weinstein, Joshua Vazhappilly and Berlini Narampanawe.

While many people were patiently waiting for a major snowfall before trying to build a snowman in the yard, graduate students at New York Medical College in Valhalla not only got a jump on the weather, but used their snowman-building talents to help some deserving children.

Members of the Graduate Student Association in the Graduate School of Basic Medical Sciences assembled an artificial snowman in the lobby of the Basic Sciences Building for what they named The Snowman Project. On the snowman, they posted the holiday gift wishes of 150 children that had been collected by Sheltering Arms, an organization working to strengthen the education, well-being, and development of vulnerable children, youth, and families in the New York metro area. Students, faculty and staff were invited to pick one or more requests from the snowman, locate the requested gifts and join a wrapping party.

The student association then took care of getting the wrapped gifts to Sheltering Arms.