Sixteen needy students at Gwendolyn Brooks Elementary School, 3225 Sangamon Road, will receive gifts for the holidays thanks to NIU students.

A group of operations management and information systems seniors formed the Adopt a Child Foundation as a part of OMIS 352, a project management course taught by OMIS instructor Brian Bender. The foundation partnered with the elementary school’s Mitten Program and raised $600 to help children in need, said Nicholas Cepeda, Adopt a Child Foundation project manager.

The Mitten Program, founded in December 2010, identifies needy children during the holiday season and creates a process that allows them to receive one outfit and one toy, said Stephanie Gooden, president of the Gwendolyn Brooks Elementary School Parent Teacher Association. Once the children are identified, a mitten with each child’s name and relevant information is placed on a wall where teachers, staff and community members can select a student to help.

There were 90 mittens on the wall this year and only 10 are left, Gooden said.

“We definitely have a need here at our school. … It kind of connects NIU’s university program with our elementary school,” Gooden said.

The Adopt a Child Foundation was created this semester when students in the project management course were instructed to develop a project that could teach them business management principles and be for a cause they care about, Cepeda said.

“We had to do a project like a real world business,” Cepeda said. “I have children of my own, and seeing them going without, I couldn’t imagine that.”

The foundation hopes to continue the project once the class is over, Cepeda said.

Growing up on Chicago’s South Side and being apart of programs like the Adopt a Child Foundation, it’s a good and weird feeling to have the tables turned, said Julia Selvie, Adopt a Child Foundation member.

Contact Cepeda at [email protected] or Selvie at [email protected] for more information.