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Children's AIDS Project Remembers Yvonne O'Neal
Yvonne Clary O'Neal
SGA President Louis Smeby
From left, 2002 Gifts for Special Children honorees Angela Grant, Raymond Figueroa and David Sheppard.
No one was any more dedicated than Yvonne O'Neal and no other individual raised more money for the College's Gifts for Special Children Project - over $50,000 in mostly small donations she collected door to door from community residents. O'Neal, who died suddenly the weekend before the project's "Sweet 16" celebration, had been with the Gifts Project from its inception in 1986. During that time she successfully solicited thousands of the more than 100,000 toys and other gifts the project collected and distributed over the years to help brighten the winter holidays of countless New York City children living with AIDS.
The 16th Annual Gifts for Special Children Awards Ceremony on December 12 was dedicated to this very special woman who had been with the College since 1984. She was first employed as a City Tech career placement counselor and more recently as a job development specialist with the COPE program, which provides a wide range of support services to the College's family assistance and safety net population. Highly sensitive to the hopes and anxieties of the students she served, Yvonne helped them across the years to clarify their values and achieve their academic, career and personal goals.
At this year's ceremony, Gifts for Special Children Award recipients included Raymond Figueroa, executive director of Brooklyn's Turning Point Discipleship, Inc.; Angela Grant, director of HIV prevention and intervention services with the borough's Urban Resource Institute; and David Sheppard, executive director of the Manhattan-based Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS (DIFFA). The three were recognized for their significant local, regional or national contributions to the ongoing war on AIDS.
While the Gifts Project has enjoyed the support of selected faculty and staff groups, unions and committed individuals across the CUNY system for many years, this was the first year that all CUNY campuses participated, thanks to the leadership provided by City Tech Student Government Association (SGA) President Louis Smeby, who successfully spearheaded a massive effort involving all CUNY SGAs and other student organizations in support of the 2002 campaign. At City Tech, some 50 student clubs joined the effort.
In addition to providing holiday gifts for youngsters with AIDS, many of whom have been orphaned by the still-incurable malady that destroys the body's ability to fight disease, the Gifts Project also has provided assistance to many under-funded AIDS special care facilities. It has created 16 children's mini-libraries in hospitals, medical clinics and other health care facilities citywide and has helped establish Child Life Centers at the Brooklyn AIDS Taskforce and elsewhere.
Yvonne O'Neal Photo courtesy of the O'Neal family
Photo Credit: Michele Forsten
