Quinnipiac University Donates To Pajama Program’s Connecticut Chapter

From Quinnipiac University: The Quinnipiac University community donated 50 pairs of pajamas and 25 new books to the Connecticut chapter of the Pajama Program during a holiday luncheon on Dec. 21 at the Center for Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences on the North Haven Campus.

Rae Guthrie, secretary to the dean of the School of Health Sciences, organized the donation drive, which started in November with collection boxes on the North Haven and Mount Carmel campuses.

Guthrie said the luncheon, for North Haven Campus employees, their children and grandchildren, was “a nice way to bring everybody together during the holidays.”

Geraldine Woods, co-president of the chapter, accepted the pajamas and books at the event, which featured pizza, desserts, singing by the Cheshire/Quinnipiac Transition Collaborative program and a visit from Santa Claus.

The Pajama Program is a non-profit organization with headquarters in New York City that was founded by Genevieve Piturro in 2001. The organization has chapters throughout the United States and has donated more than 4 million pajamas and books to children in need.

Woods, a part-time faculty member in the School of Education, said her chapter has 55 receiving organizations throughout the state. She’s been involved for about eight years.

“Quinnipiac is fabulous,” the retired Cheshire teacher and Wallingford resident said. “We give pajamas and books to so many children in hospitals and in need. For the employees to be thinking of others outside the university is wonderful.”

Woods’ husband, Joseph, a biology professor and former dean of the School of Health Sciences at Quinnipiac, played Santa Claus for the North Haven employees and their families.

About Quinnipiac University
Quinnipiac is a private, coeducational, nonsectarian institution located 90 minutes north of New York City and two hours from Boston. The university enrolls 6,784 full-time undergraduate and 2,884 graduate and part-time students in 100 degree programs through its Schools of Business, Communications, Education, Engineering, Health Sciences, Law, Medicine, Nursing andCollege of Arts and Sciences. Quinnipiac consistently ranks among the top regional universities in the North in U.S. News & World Report’s America’s “Best Colleges” issue. Quinnipiac also is recognized in Princeton Review’s “The Best 381 Colleges.” The Chronicle of Higher Education has named Quinnipiac among the “Great Colleges to Work For.” For more information, please visit www.qu.edu. Connect with Quinnipiac on Facebook at www.facebook.com/quinnipiacunews and follow Quinnipiac on Twitter @QuinnipiacU.

Photo courtesy of Quinnipiac University (Joseph Woods, a biology professor and former dean of the School of Health Sciences at Quinnipiac University, plays the part of Santa Claus and fist bumps New London’s Declan Lewis, the son of Meghan Lewis, clinical assistant professor and laboratory coordinator at Quinnipiac, during a pizza party to celebrate the university’s pajama drive in partnership with the Connecticut chapter of the Pajama Program. (Autumn Driscoll/Quinnipiac University).)